I 



LIFE OF SIR PHILIP 
SIDNEY. 



THE 

LIFE OF 
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 



BY 



JULIUS LLOYD, M.A. 



: His life was gentle ; and the elements 
So mixed in him, that Nature might ftand up, 
And fay to all the world, ' This was a man.' " 




LONDON: 

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, 
AND GREEN. 

1862. 



The Right of Translation is referred. 





PREFACE. 



//U 



3? 




HORT Memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney 
are numerous ; but his admirable 
character, no lefs than his great fame, 
demands a fuller account of his life. This was 
undertaken by Southey in 1804, as appears from 
his Diary. Unhappily, Southey never com- 
pleted his biography. In 1808, Dr. Zouch 
publifhed, in a quarto volume, a mafs of inter- 
esting particulars about Sidney. As a memoir, 
however, Zouch's book is by no means fatisfac- 
tory; and fince it was written, much light has 
been thrown on the times of Elizabeth. The 
letters edited by Wright, Ellis, Murdin, Bruce, 
Gray, and Pears have been of eflential fervice in 



vi Preface. 

the composition of the prefent work. Mr. Mot- 
ley's Hiftory of the Netherlands is not only 
valuable for its learned and pi&urefque exposition 
of European politics, but alfo contains fome curi- 
ous notices of Sidney from unpublished fources. 
In addition to thefe, I have found feveral new 
facts by confulting the MSS. preferred, at the 
State Paper Office, with the courteous affiftance 
which is given to Students there. 

Where it has appeared to be requisite, I have 
cited authorities. But the following books have 
been fo constantly in my hands, that it would be 
fuperfluous to have referred to them in ordinary 
cafes : — The Life of the renowned Sir Philip 
Sidney, by Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke 
(edition of 1652). The Sidney Papers, edited, 
with Memoirs, by Arthur Collins, 2 vols. 1746. 
Sir P. Sidney's Mifcellaneous Works, edited, with a 
Life, by Wm. Gray. Oxford, 1829. Sidney's Cor- 
refpondence withLanguet, translated and edited by 
Steuart A. Pears, D.D. Lond. 1845. Dr. Pears 
has added an excellent biographical preface. 



Preface. vii 

Several portraits of Sidney are in the pofTeflion 
of Lord De L'Ifle at Penfhurft, Among the 
pictures at Warwick Cattle is a beautiful head of 
Sidney, which was the property of the firft Lord 
Brooke. The Woburn picture is well known 
from the engraving in Lodge and Harding's col- 
lection. Other portraits are enumerated by corre- 
fpondentsof "Notes andQueries," March 12,1859, 
and Oct. 20, i860. The engraving prefixed to 
Zouch's Memoirs is altogether a blunder. It is 
probably neither a likenefs of Sidney, nor a picture 
by Velafquez, who was born after Sidney's death. 

During the progrefs of this volume through the 
prefs, its publication has been anticipated by that 
of a copious Memoir of Sir Philip Sidney by Mr. 
H. R. Fox Bourne. The greater part of the 
following pages were printed before I faw Mr. 
Bourne's work. In the laft three chapters it has 
afTifted me to avoid fome inaccuracies, and fup- 
plied a few additions, which are printed in the 
notes. I am indebted to him for the name of Wil- 
liam Wentworth, Burleigh's fon-in-law, referred 



viii Preface, 

to (p. 138) in a letter of Sidney's, which, as I fhould 
have ftated, is taken from Murdin's Burghley 
Papers, together with thofe in pp. 135 and 137. 

It appears (Bourne, p. 27) that Sidney went to 
Oxford in his fourteenth year, a year earlier than 
I have ftated on Dr. Zouch's authority. I have 
been able to prove, from the MS. correfpondence 
of the French AmbarTador, the correclnefs of 
Mr. Bourne's furmife that Sidney's miflion to 
Paris in 1584 was not carried out, and alfo tol 
give the reafons why it was revoked: fee p. 155. 

The dates at which Sidney's works were com- 
pofed are far more uncertain than would appear 
from Mr. Bourne's Memoir. In placing them I 
have partly relied on internal evidence, partly on 
the opinions of Sidney's editors. The early date 
1580, afligned to the "Defence of Poefy," may 
be fuftained by feveral arguments ; the youthful 
vivacity of the ftyle, the flight, almoft apologetic, 
commendation of Spenfer ; but more particularly, 
the appearance, in 1579, of the attack on poetry 



Preface. ix 

by Go (Ton, of which Sidney refufed the dedication : 
fee p. 6$. 

Since I have read Mr. Bourne's account of 
"Aftrophel and Stella," I fee more than ever 
how arbitrary and infecure is the critical procefs 
of educing facts from the fcattered verfes of a 
deceafed poet, efpecially when printed, as thefe 
were, without fo much as a friendly editor to 
arrange them. Mr. Collier has mown, in his 
~,ife of Spenfer, lately publifhed, that " Aftrophel 
and Stella" was printed furreptitioufly by Thomas 
Nam, in 1 591. The conclusions which I have 
drawn from Sidney's Poems are fubmitted with 
diffidence and, as far as poffible, fultained by 
direct proofs. Mr. Bourne has fallen into a 
ferious error as to the date of Lady Penelope 
Devereux's marriage. The letter on which he 
relies (p. 286), in correction of the common date 
158 1, proves his own miftake. I find, by refer- 
ence to the MS. (Brit. Mus. Lanfdowne MS. 
xxxi. 40), that he has not taken his ufual care to 



x Preface, 

rectify the year according to the modern calendar, 
the letter being written on the ioth of March. 
This error is the more grave that Mr. Bourne's 
eftimate of Sidney's moral character depends upon 
it. Here and there Mr. Bourne has allowed 
himfelf too great a freedom of paraphrafe. For 
inftance (pp. 144, 145), he has put an oration 
into Sidney's mouth without any fufficient autho- 
rity. The words are bafed on Lord Brooke's, 
who gives the fubftance of Sidney's arguments, 
not to the Emperor, but to the lefTer German 
Princes, as is evident from an allufion to Auftrian 
fupremacy (Brooke, p. 50). Again (p. 343), it 
is too much to afTert that Sidney " determined to 
retain only fuch parts of" the Arcadia, <c as would 
fit into a ftrictly hiftorical romance, with King 
Arthur for its hero." How Sidney would have 
handled the fable of Arthur is a matter of mere 
conjecture. In the familiar anecdote of the 
wounded foldier Mr. Bourne has deviated capri- 
cioufly from his authority, Lord Brooke. He 



Preface. xi 

has altogether omitted to refute or notice the old 
tradition that Sidney was nominated for the throne 
of Poland. 

The preceding remarks, and fome others which 
occur in the notes, on Mr. Bourne's Memoir, are 
rendered neceffary by the circumftances under 
which this volume appears. On the merits and 
defects of his work in general I fhall not offer an 
opinion, further than to acknowledge that the 
following pages would have gained much if, while 
they were ftill in MS, I had been able to avail 
myfelf of his diligent refearches. 

May, 1862. 




CONTENTS. 



, Chapter 1. — Family and Childhoo 


D. I554-IS72. 


*B* ^s=*sfi»/v- 


Page 


wfra^ NTRODUCTION 


I 


^n w^. The Sidne y s 


4 


P§rj kSq ^^ e Dudleys 


6 


^(^gl^ Childhood at Penfliurft 


9 


Shrewsbury School 


10 


Chrift Church, Oxford 


12 


Contract of Marriage with Anne Cecil 


14 


Chapter II. — Foreign Travel. 


1572-1577. 


Paris in 1572 


15 


Sidney's Friends 


18 


Maflacre of St. Bartholomew * 


19 


Sidney leaves France 


20 


Hubert Languet 


20 


Studies in Germany 


21 


Vifit to Italy 


22 


Letter to Robert Sidney on Travel 


25 


Correfpondence with Languet 


31 


Studies at Padua 


33 


Portrait painted by Veronefe 


34 


Poland .... 


35 


Hungary .... 


. . 36 


Return to England 


37 


Vifit to his Father in Ireland 


38 


Marriage of Mary Sidney 


39 



XIV 



Contents. 



Philip appointed AmbafTador to the Emperor 

Interviews at Prague 

The Count Palatine and his Brother 

Don John of Auftria 

William of Orange 

Sidney's Opinions on the State of Europe 

Lord Brooke .... 



42; 



39 
42 

45 
46 

47 
48 
5° 



Chapter III. — Court of Queen Elizabeth. 1577- 1580. 

State of the Kingdom . . . . . 52 

Worfhip of the Queen ..... 54 

Character of Elizabeth . . . . . 57 

Her favour to Sidney . . . . . 59 

His Literary Friends . . . . . 61 

Spenfer ...... .63 

Sidney's Court Life ..... 65 

Defence of his Father's Government of Ireland . 66 

Letter to Sir Henry's Secretary . . . 68 

Lady Penelope Devereux .... 69 

Sidney's Love and Melancholy .... 72 

Vilit of Languet to England .... 75 

Treaty of Marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke 

of Anjou . . . . . . j 6 

Letter of Sidney to the Queen . . . . 79 

The Earl of Oxford 82 

Quarrel in the Tennis-court . . . . 83 

Interview with Elizabeth .... $6 

Retirement from Court . . . . . 88 



Chapter IV. — Arcadia. 

Difappointment . . 

Life at Wilton .... 

Charadleriftics of Arcadia 

Mixture of Mediaeval and Claffical Ideas 

Pamela's Prayer . . 

High Tone of Sentiment 

Epifode of Argalus and Partbenia 



89 

9 1 
93 
94 
96 
97 
101 



Contents. 


XV 




Page 


Refleftivenefs ..... 


IO4 


Defcription of Hawking .... 


I04 


Inferiority of the Songs .... 


I07 


Want of Humour .... 


I07 


The Defence of Poefy .... 


I09 


Sidney's Literary Influence 


112 


Tr anflation of the Pfalms 


U4 


Building and Gardening . . . . 


115 


Chapter V. — Return to Public Life. 1581- 


1585. 


M.P. for Kent, 1581 


117 


Sir Walter Mildmay's Committee 


117 


"Triumph" in Honour of the Duke of Anjou 


121 


Marriage of Lady Penelope Devereux 


124 


Aftrophel and Stella .... 


124 


Death of Languet .... 


l 3 l 


Invitation to Portugal .... 


132 


Letter to the Queen enclofing a Cipher 


l 3S 


Journey to Antwerp with the Duke of Anjou 


136 


Defire of Employment .... 


1 37 


Project of American Difcovery 


142 


Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh . 


144 


Correfpondence with Dupleffis Mornay 


148 


^Sidney knighted ..... 


148 


His Marriage ..... 


148 


Paper in Defence of the Earl of Leicefler 


151 


Propofed EmbafTy to France 


l SS 


Refumption of American Scheme with Drake 


159 


Appointed Governor of Jiufhing 


161 


Birth of his Daughter .... 


161 


Chapter VI. — War in the Netherlands. 158 


5-1586. 


Sidney's Arrival at Fluihing ... 


162 


Letter to Leicefler . ... 


163 


State of the War 


168 


Leicefler Governor-General 


169 



XVI 



Contents. 



Mifery of the Army 

Sidney's Anxieties and Projects 

Colonelcy of the Zealand Regiment 

Letter to Waljingham 

Leicefter's Jelling Player Will 

Opening of the Campaign 

Surprife of Axel 

Ambufcade at Gravelines 

Supper Party at Gertruydenberg 

Capture of Doefburg 

Siege of Zutphen 

Battle of September 22nd 

Valour of the Englifh 

Sidney mortally wounded 

Refults of the Battle 



Chapter VII. — Sidney's Death. 1586. 

Sidney conveyed to Arnheim 

Attended by his Wife 

Death of Sir Henry and Lady Mary Sidney 

Signs of Amendment 

Sidney's Profeffton of Faith 

Difcourfes on the Immortality of the Soul 

Converfations with GirFord 

His Will ..... 

La Cuijfe Rompue .... 

Laft Converfations .... 

Death 

National Mourning 

The Kingdom of Poland 

Funeral at St. Paul's 

Elegies ...... 

Characler of Sidney 

Pamela's Prayer, from Arcadia 
Verfes on Sidney's Funeral 




The Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 



Chapter I. 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD. 

Kent thy birth-days, and Oxford held thy youth : 
The heavens made hafte, and ftaid nor years nor time : 
The fruits of age grew ripe in thy firft prime, 
Thy will, thy words, thy words, the feals of truth." 

Sir Walter Raleigh. 

HE name of Sir Philip Sidney is one 
of the brightest in Englifri hiftory. 
His fame refts upon the noble title 
of the praife of thofe who are them- 
felves moft praifeworthy. Living at an illuftrious 
period of our annals, his eminent worth as a fol- 
dier, ftatefman, and author, was extolled by the 
general voice of his contemporaries. Such popu- 
larity is fometimes a mere fafhion of the day, 
which is apt to miflead the wifeft judgment, and 
from which the critics of Elizabeth's reign were 

B 




2 The Life of 

certainly not exempt. At firft fight one might 
be inclined to afcribe Sidney's reputation to this 
influence ; for the acts of his fhort career are 
hardly fufficient in themfelves to account for the 
applaufe which was beftowed upon him, and the 
univerfal forrow of his countrymen when he died. 
Yet, although his literary works have long ceafed 
to be popular, few who have written of him in 
later times have failed to regard his memory with 
admiration almoft unqualified, and with tendernefs 
refembling that of private friendship. 

The fecret of his fame feems to lie in the 
fingular beauty of his life ; which has been well 
defcribed as cc poetry put into action." He was 
the perfect type of a gentleman. If the chief 
qualities comprehended under this term are gene- 
rofity, dignity, refinement of heart and mind, it 
would be hard to find in any age or nation a 
better example than Sidney. His foul overflowed 
with magnanimity and fympathy. Thefe inward 
excellencies were fet off, when living, by ex- 
treme beauty of perfon, fweetnefs of voice, and 
proficiency in all accomplifhments and arts, as 
well as by a certain gracefulnefs, which appeared 
in whatever he did or faid, and ftill fhines through 
his writings with a peculiar charm. 

One naturally defires to meafure fo intereiting 



Sir Philip Sidney. 3 

a character by the higheft poffible ftandard. To 
be accounted a perfect gentleman, though it be 
great praife, is far from being the greater!:. Such 
praife is confident with many defects, and even 
with fome of the qualities which are moft at 
variance with that Christian holinefs which is the 
only true ideal of manhood. The indulgence of 
the paffions of pride, revenge, and love, is faintly 
reftrained by the principle of honour. Still lefs 
does a man's fpiritual ftate, his relation to his 
Heavenly Father, come within its province. So 
we find men like Henry IV. of France, reputed 
the firrt gentleman of his time, and yet undeferving 
of any place in Chriftian biography. How far 
Sidney may claim fuch a rank will appear from 
the following pages. Doubtlefs the career which, 
from a lower point of view, looks fo glorious and 
fpotlefs, mows many traces of error and fin when 
we teft it by the One Perfect Example of Virtue. 
But Sidney is a man to be brought, without im- 
propriety, to fuch a comparifon. «» No vulgar mea- 
fure does him juftice; and any inftruction which 
may be fuggefted by his life will beft arife from 
eftimating his worth fairly ; treating his virtues 
and accomplimments as divine gifts, and his faults 
as examples of the frailty which is common to 
human nature. 



4 The Life of 

He was born at Penmurft, in Kent, on the 
2 9th of November, 1554. His birthplace is one 
of the chief ornaments of the neighbourhood of 
Tunbridge Wells : a large old houfe, built in the 
period when Englifhmen began to rely on the 
internal fecurity of their country, and to difpenfe 
with the protection of cattle walls. Poets have 
celebrated the beeches and deer of Penmurft 
Park; and an oak, which was fown at Sir Philip's 
birth, is famous among Britifh trees. Ben Jonfon 
writes, in well-known verfes, of — 

" That taller tree, which of a nut was fet 
At his great birth where all the Mufes met." 

And on its bark Waller propofed to commemo- 
rate his unrequited love for Philip's great-niece: — 

" Go, boy, and carve this paffion on the bark 
Of yonder tree, which Hands the facred mark 
Of noble Sidney's birth." 

An ancient trunk is ftill mown as the Sidney Oak, 
but the original was cut down a century ago. 

The Sidneys came from Anjou in company with 
Henry II. In the courfe of generations they 
intermarried with fome of the nobleft families 
in England ; and the lift of their connections in- 
cludes feveral names renowned, in various ways, 
wherever Englifh hiftory or literature is read. It 



Sir Philip Sidney. 5 

is fufficient to give, as inftances, the ancient names 
of Gray, Talbot, Beauchamp, Berkeley, Lifle; 
the great houfes of Pembroke, Stanley, Cavendifh, 
Spencer, Brooke; the refolute defenders of con- 
ftitutional liberty, John Hampden and Algernon 
Sidney ; the pfalmift George Herbert, and the 
poets Byron and Shelley. Sir Henry, the father 
of Philip Sidney, was defervedly refpected by 
many fovereigns. He was brought up in com- 
pany with Edward VI, whofe nurfe and governefs 
were of Sir Henry's family. Edward often flept 
in the fame bed with him, and breathed his laft in 
his arms. His firft appointment was that of 
henchman to King Henry, whofe three children 
in turn employed him in important pofts of ftate. 
By Edward he was knighted and fent ambaffador 
into France. In Mary's reign he was fent 
as Lord Juftice to Ireland, and there, fighting 
under the Earl of SufTex againft the northern 
rebels, he killed the chief M c Connell with his own 
hand. Elizabeth promoted him to the Prefidency 
of Wales; and during his tenure of this office, 
which lafted for twenty-fix years, he was fent over 
to Ireland, as the Queen's Deputy, three times. 
In each of thefe vifits he fuftained a violent re- 
bellion, fubdued it, and left the country in quiet. 
Ireland was divided by him into counties : he 



6 The Life of 

printed the ftatutes, and fet on foot a national 
fcheme of education. His character was marked 
by a grand, manly ingenuoufnefs, not unlike that 
of an ancient Roman ; but his letters continu- 
ally betray the warm affection with which his 
feverer virtues were tempered.* His wife was no 
lefs commended, by thofe who knew her beft, for 
every womanly virtue and high intellectual gift. 
She is defcribed by her hufband as having been 
cc a full fair lady, in mine eye at leaft the faireft," 
before (he loft her beauty by the fmall-pox, which 
me caught through nuriing the Queen in the 
fame difeafe. After that time me lived in much 
retirement. This admirable woman was Mary, 
eldeft daughter of the ambitious Duke of Nor- 
thumberland, and Philip was taught from his 
childhood to be proud of his defcent by the 
mother's fide. cc I am a Dudley in blood/' he 
faid in defending his uncle Leicefter; c< my chiefeft 
honour is to be a Dudley." The name is one 
of great antiquity, coming from a Saxon chief 
Dudo, or Dodo, who built a fort about the 
time of the Heptarchy, where Dudley Caftle 



* In vol. clix. of the State Papers is a moft interefting 
autobiography of Sir Henry Sidney, written to Walfingham, 
for the purpofe of fhowing his claim to a penfion. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 7 

ftands, encircled by woods, on the edge of the 
mines of South Staffordshire. At the Norman 
Conquer!: the eftate was given by William to 
one of his knights with the hand of the Saxon 
heirefs ; and from them the Dudleys of a later 
date were collaterally defcended. After feveral 
generations, marked by no extraordinary dif- 
tinction, the family rofe in the fifteenth century 
to a high and guilty eminence. Four feveral 
Dudleys, in lefs than feventy years, attained for a 
time to great power and ftation, from which three 
of them fell, flill more fuddenly, to die on the 
fcaffold for high treafon. The firft was Henry 
VII. "s minifter, who was brought to trial on the 
acceffion of Henry VIII : a bad man, whofe cruel 
exactions made him and his family juftly odious 
to the people, though he was probably innocent 
of the charge on which he was beheaded. His 
verfatile fon John Dudley fucceeded, as is well 
known, in gaining the favour of Henry VIII. 
by his fkill as a foldier and a courtier. He was 
made fucceffively Vifcount Lifle, Lord High 
Admiral, Earl of Warwick, and Duke of Nor- 
thumberland ; and for a few troubled weeks his 
ambition was gratified by hearing his daughter- 
in-law ftyled Queen. At the fame time he had 
become popular with Ridley and other reformers 



8 The Life of 

by profeffing Proteftant doctrines. The part 
which he took in promoting the Reformation is a 
ftriking inftance of a good caufe helped, and at 
the fame time difhonoured, by the felfimnefs of a 
worldly man. His fall in 1553 feemed to be the 
ruin of his family. The death of Guildford 
Dudley, on Tower Hill, was the confequence of 
his treafon ; and his other fons narrowly efcaped 
a fimilar fate. John, the el deft, died in the 
Beauchamp Tower, where his infcription, deli- 
cately carved, may ftill be feen. Neverthelefs, 
in the perfon of Robert, the Dudleys regained 
their former eminence. In the face of the taint 
of treafon, and of darker fufpicions, which popular 
hatred magnified, he lived to be a not unwelcome 
fuitor of two rival Queens, and for many years to 
exercife, as Earl of Leicefter, a greater influence 
on the Englifh State, at home and abroad, than 
his grandfather or even his father had ever 
poflefTed. Reflecting on thefe wonderful viciffi- 
tudes of the houfe of Dudley, there feems to be 
at leaft as much caufe for iliame as of pride to one 
in whofe veins the fame blood was flowing. If 
we grant, as we may, that it is an honour to be 
fprung from a noble race, the di (honour of bad 
anceftors muft alfo be accepted with humiliation 
as our own. But it muft not be forgotten that 



Sir Philip Sidney. g 

the impreflion which is given in hiftory of families 
and individuals is rarely juft. Hiftory exagge- 
rates the lights and fhadows of human character, 
and more particularly the latter ; leaving untold 
many homely virtues to record one great mifdeed. 
Thus, among the fons of Northumberland, the 
fecond, Ambrofe, who makes comparatively no 
fign in public affairs, was known in his generation 
as the Cf good Earl of Warwick." 

It was at the time of the loweft downfall of the 
family that Philip Sidney was born. The exe- 
cution of his grandfather, Northumberland, had 
taken place the previous year, followed by thofe 
of his uncle Guildford and of Jane Grey, his aunt 
by her unhappy marriage. Help came to the 
Dudleys from the quarter whence it could leaft 
have been expected. Philip of Spain, folicited by 
Sir Henry Sidney, and anxious to gain credit in 
England for clemency, interceded for them, and 
their forfeited lands and titles were reftored. 
Out of gratitude for this favour and loyalty to 
the Queen, who was married to the Spanifh King 
in the fummer, the infant Sidney received the 
name of Philip. It has been faid that he had \ 
Philip for his godfather, but the ftatement refts 
on infufficient authority. He was the elded fon 
of his parents. The children afterwards born to 



i o The Life of 

them were two Tons, Robert and William ; and 
four daughters, of whom three died young, the 
other being Mary, afterwards Countefs of Pem- 
broke, famous for her learning, beauty, and virtue. 
Robert Sidney fills a refpedtable place in the hif- 
tory of his time, and received the Earldom of 
Leicester from James I. 

The manners of the family at Penfhurn 1 corref- 
ponded with Ben Jonfon's defcription of the next 
generation of Sidneys : — 

" They are, and have been, taught religion : thence 
Their gentle fpirits have fucked innocence. 
Each morn and even they are taught to pray 
With the whole houfehold ; and may every day 
Read in their virtuous parents' noble parts 
The mylleries of manners, arms, and arts." 

On the appointment of Sir Henry Sidney to be 
President of Wales he went to refide at Ludlow 
Cattle, and Philip was fent to fchool at Shrewf- 
bury. A long letter which he received from his 
father in 1556, when he was eleven years old, was 
carefully preferved, and is extant. In this Sir 
Henry acknowledges two letters of Philip's, one 
written in Latin, and the other in French, and he 
proceeds to give him found advice on the moft 
important points of duty and behaviour. The 
letter is indeed a model of its kind. " Let your 



Sir Philip Sidney, 1 1 

firfb action," he fays, " be the lifting up of your 
mind to Almighty God by hearty prayer, and 
feelingly digeft the words you fpeak in prayer with 
continual meditation and thinking of Him to 
whom you pray, and of the matter for which you 
pray." He counfels Philip to be ftudious, to be 
courteous, cheerful, temperate, and cleanly ; to 
ftrengthen his body by exercife ; to avoid fcurrilous 
and ribald converfation ; to be a liftener rather 
than a talker : and cc above all things," he adds, 
" tell no untruth, no, not in trifles." He bids 
him further to ftudy and endeavour to keep him- 
felf virtuoufly occupied, and warns him not to 
dimonour his noble race ; concluding — cc Your 
loving father, fo long as you live in the fear of 
God, H. Sidney." An affectionate poftfcript 
follows from his mother: — 

cc Your noble and careful father hath taken 
pains (with his own hand) to give you in this his 
letter fo wife, fo learned, and moft requifite pre- 
cepts, for you to follow with a diligent and 
humble thankful mind, as I will not withdraw 
your eyes from beholding and reverent honouring 
the fame, no not fo long time as to read any letter 
from me ; and therefore at this time I will write no 
other letter than this : whereby I firfr. blefs you, 
with my defire to God to plant in you His grace : 



1 2 The Life of 

and fecondarily warn you to have always before 
the eyes of your mind thofe excellent counfels of 
my lord your dear father, and that you fail not 
continually once in four or five days to read them 
over. And for a final leave-taking for this time, 
fee that you mow yourfelf a loving obedient 
fcholar to your good matter, and that my lord 
and I may hear that you profit fo in your learning 
as thereby you may increafe our loving care of 
you, and deferve at his hands the continuance of 
his great joys, to have him often witnefs with his 
own hand the hope he hath in your well-doing. 

cc Farewell, my little Philip, and once again, 
the Lord blefs you ! Your loving Mother, 

" Marie Sidney." 

From Shrewfbury, Philip went, at the age of 
fifteen, to Chrift Church, Oxford, where he dif- 
tinguifhed himfelf by his love of ftudy and the 
intelligence with which he mattered what he 
learned. His tutor was Dr. Thornton, whom he 
held in grateful remembrance. One of the moft 
promifing young men of the time, Robert Carew, 
was felected to difpute with him, according to 
cuftom, when he took his degree. The difputa- 
tion took place in the prefence of his uncle, the 
Earl of Leicefter, who was Chancellor of the 



Sir Philip Sidney. i 3 

Univerfity. He inherited a delicate conftitution 
from his mother, who never recovered from the 
great forrow of her family's overthrow ; and he 
feems alfo to have outgrown his ftrength ; for 
Leicefter wrote about this time to Archbifhop 
Parker requeuing <c a licenfe to eat flefh during 
Lent, for my boy Philip Sidney, who is fomewhat 
fubjecl to fkknefs." His weak health inclined 
him to premature earneftnefs, though it did not 
hinder him from mowing rare dexterity in manly 
fports and exercifes. The following defcription 
of his character as a boy is given by his friend 
and biographer, Lord Brooke : — " Though I 
lived with him, and knew him from a child, yet 
I never knew him other than a man, with fuch a 
fTaidnefs of mind, lovely and familiar gravity, 
as carried grace and reverence above greater years. 
His talk was ever of knowledge, and his very play 
tending to enrich his mind." Sidney is fuppofed, 
after leaving Oxford, to have joined Lord Brooke 
at Cambridge.* His name does not appear on 
the books of that Univerfity. But it was for- 
merly a common practice to vifit feveral Uni ver- 
ities, for a fhort courfe of lectures at each. 
A Latin letter is extant among the State 

* Zouch's Memoirs of Sidney, p. 34. 



1 4 The Life of 

Papers, in which he gives a diffident account of 
his ft-udies to Sir William Cecil, better known as 
the Lord Treafurer Burleigh. While he was at 
Oxford a marriage was projected between him 
and Cecil's daughter Anne. Of this Cecil 
writes :* — cc I have been prefTed with fuch kind 
offers of my Lord Deputy, and with the like of 
my Lord of Leicester, as I have accorded with 
him upon articles, (by a manner of A B without 
any perfons named,) that if P. S. and A. C. here- 
after mail like to marry, then mail H. S. the 
father of P. S. make affurances, &c. ; and then 
mail alfo W. C. the father of A. C. pay, &c. 
What may follow I know not, but as I wifh 
P. S. full liberty, fo furely A. C. mail have it, 
and in the meantime I will omit no point of friend- 
ship." The contract was never fulfilled, owing, 
perhaps, to Cecil's ambition ; for Sir Henry Sid- 
ney was warmly in its favour. Anne was married 
young to Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, whofe 
cruelty broke her heart. 

* Wright's Elizabeth, i. 323. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 



l 5 




Chapter IT. 




FOREIGN TRAVEL. 
TToXXwv <T avQpidTrwv 'idtv aorta ical voov 'iyvu. 

'N 1572, having completed his aca- 
demical courfe, Sidney obtained the 
Queen's licence to travel on the Con- 
tinent for two years, to learn foreign 
languages. His retinue, fpecifled by the licence, 
was three fervants and four horfes. Sidney's 
firft deftination was Paris. He was recommended 
by Leicefter to the care of Francis Walfingham, 
the Englim AmbarTador, and he travelled in the 
fuite of the Lord Admiral Lincoln, who was fent 
on an extraordinary miflion to conclude a treaty 
of alliance with the French King. At that time 
Paris had begun to take the lead of the European 
cities in the arts of civilization. The victories 
which had been gained in Italy by feveral fuc- 
ceflive kings had eftablifhed the reputation of 



1 6 The Life of 

French chivalry, and had introduced fouthern 
taftes and fafhions into France, enriching Paris 
with choice paintings and ftatues, tapeftry, jewels, 
and armour, the fpoil of Italian cities. Sidney 
had the mod favourable opportunities of obferving 
the mind and manners of the French Court. He 
was prefented by Walfingham to Charles IX, who 
treated him with marked kindnefs, and caufed him 
to be fworn in as one of his gentlemen of the bed- 
chamber. This, although a port, of honour in a 
worldly fenfe, was befet with temptations for a 
youth ; and it is not the leaft of Sidney's praifes 
that he parTed uncorrupted through fuch ex- 
perience of evil as he muft have acquired at the 
Louvre. For there, under the mafk of politenefs 
and of the moft romantic honour, were concealed 
the vices of men and women without religion, 
truth, or fhame : poifoners, arTaffins, and fome, 
even in the higheft places, who were devoted to 
the black art of magic. The feeble King was 
ruled by his mother, Catherine de' Medicis, who 
fet the Court an example of cold-blooded iniquity. 
Paffionlefs herfelf, fhe knew how to make ufe of 
human pamons, turning to her own account, with 
Italian craft, the hatred of one, the affection of 
another, the zeal of a third. But her favourite 
means of gaining power over the princes and 



Sir Philip Sidney, \J 

nobles around her was by corrupting and leading 
their minds with diflblute pleafure. She played 
with deliberate felfifhnefs the part of a tempter to 
evil. The chief perfonages in rank after the 
King and Catherine were her two younger fons, 
the Dukes of Anjou and Alencon. Of thefe, the 
former had gained a brilliant reputation in the 
civil wars, on the fields of Jarnac and Moncon- 
tour ; but the hopes which he had raifed in his 
youth were foon difappointed by his effeminate 
and wicked reign. Francis, Duke of Alencon, 
fucceeded a few years later to the title of Anjou, 
on his brother's acceflion to the throne ; and a 
marriage negotiation, which had been commenced 
with Elizabeth of England on behalf of his bro- 
ther Henry, was alfo transferred to him. When 
this marriage was on the point of taking place, and 
the whole Englifh people was agitated by the prof- 
peel;, Sidney's former acquaintance with the French 
Prince and his family gave ftrength to his efforts 
to difTuade the Queen from alliance with him. 
He was of a timid and jealous difpofition, arid 
falfe-hearted, though in powers of mind fuperior 
to his brothers. A finking contrafl to the fickly 
members of the royal family of Valois was pre- 
fented by the magnificent Henry Duke of Guife, 
the chief of the Catholic League, and the idol of 



i 8 The Life of 

the populace. He was at the Court, and with 
him were a multitude of fierce and proud nobles, 
burning with fcorn of their unworthy princes, and 
with jealoufy of the minions, Epernon, Joyeufe, 
and others, who grew rich on their favour. Both 
thefe two court factions were joined together for 
the moment in hatred of a third party at the 
time when Sidney was in Paris. The leaders of 
the Huguenots were lured to the capital by a 
feigned peace. It was among the nobleft of thefe, 
more than among the vain and worthlefs courtiers, 
that Sidney found his chief friends, men for the 
moft part older than himfelf, and celebrated 
throughout Europe for learning and virtue. 
Philip du Plems Mornay, afterwards Chancellor 
of France, who is reprefented in the Henriade as 
a guardian angel to his matter Henry IV, enter- 
tained an affection towards Sidney which lafted 
throughout his life. Another of his friends was 
Lewis of Naffau, brother of the great William of 
Orange, and fecond to no one in Chriftendom for 
combining in himfelf every excellence of knight- 
hood. With the wife Hubert Languet he formed 
foon afterwards a ftill clofer friendship. At the 
head of this party, which included, befldes, 
Coligni, Conde, and feveral of the moft heroic 
men in France, ftood the young King of Navarre, 



Sir Philip Sidney. 19 

Henry of Bourbon, who was next in fucceflion 
to the French throne after the King's brothers. 
He was already eminent for the high perfonal 
qualities which won for him the crown in fpite of 
reverfes and obftacles almoft without parallel. 
Unhappily for his friends and for his fame he 
became at this time an inftrument of the defigns 
of Catherine. An aftrologer had predicted to 
her that all her fons mould die young and child- 
lefs, and, though me bore Henry no love, me gave 
him her daughter Margaret in marriage, hoping 
thus to provide for the continuance of her power. 
The wedding was celebrated at Paris with elabo- 
rate magnificence in Auguft. A few days later 
Henry, who was only eighteen years old, was 
perfuaded or intimidated into renouncing his re- 
ligion and his party. Meanwhile a plot, which 
has gained a horrible celebrity, was matured by 
the Catholic nobles, who feemed intent only on 
balls and feftivities. On the 24th the city was 
ftartled by the mafTacre of St. Bartholomew. 

Sidney efcaped from this great danger by taking 
refuge in Walfingham's houfe; but it was evidently 
unfafe for him to remain at Paris. The perpe- 
trators of the mafTacre were furious men, who 
only regretted that their work was incomplete, 
and they were openly encouraged by the King 



20 The Life of 

himfelf. So unfcrupulous was the party-fpirit of 
thofe times in religious questions, that the Pope 
was not afhamed to return thanks folemnly at" 
St. Peter's for this great deftruction of the 
Huguenots, of which even a Roman Catholic 
bifhop, Perefixe, fpoke freely in the next century 
as an execrable action of which there had never 
been the like. At the Englim Court the utmoft 
horror and alarm were excited. The ambafTador 
whom Charles fent to excufe the crime found the 
Court in mourning, and was received in profound 
filence. 

A letter was immediately written by the Privy 
Council to Walfingham to take meafures for the 
departure of Sidney and other Englifhmen from 
Paris. Under his letter of fafe conduct Philip 
travelled through Lorraine into Germany, accom- 
panied by Dr. Watfon, afterwards Bifhop of 
Winchefter. He fpent a fhort time at Strafburg, 
and from that city went by way of Heidelberg 
to Frankfort, and took lodgings at the houfe of 
Andrew Wechel, a printer of fome note. His 
hoft was, like himfelf, a refugee from Paris, and 
there was in the fame houfe another refugee, 
Languet, who had faved the lives of Mornay and 
Wechel at his own utmoft peril. Between Lan- 
guet and Sidney a friendfhip fprang up refembling 



Sir Philip Sidney. 2 1 

that of More and Erafmus. Languet belonged 
to an earlier generation. He had been a friend 
of Melancthon, and was himfelf eminent as a 
Reformer. His learning was thought confider- 
able in that age of learned men ; but he was frill 
more diftinguifhed for his acquaintance with the 
ftate of Europe, and for his activity in the 
politics of the Proteftant caufe. The charms of 
his converfation were extraordinary, and Sidney's 
ardent thirft for knowledge was gratified by his 
abundant flow of information. Sidney thus com- 
memorates his friend in one of the fongs of 
Arcadia : — 

" The fong I fang old Languet had me taught, 
Languet, the fhepherd bell fwift Ifler knew ; 
For clerkly read, and hating what is naught, 
For faithful heart, clean hands, and mouth as true. 
With his fweet ikill my fkillefs youth he drew, 
To have a feeling tafte of Him who fits 
Beyond the heavens, far more beyond our wits." 

When Languet was fent to Vienna, in 1573, as 
envoy of the Elector of Saxony, Sidney went 
with him, and remained there till the clofe of the 
year, taking pains to perfect himfelf in the ufe of 
arms and horfemanfhip. The latter he learned 
in company with Edward Wotton, brother of the 
Sir Henry whofe life Walton has written. His 



22 The Life of 

m after was an Italian equerry of the Emperor, 
Pugliano, of great fame in his day, whofe praife 
of his art is pleafantly defcribed by Sidney. 
cc He faid foldiers were the nobleft eftate of 
mankind, and horfemen the nobleft of foldiers. 
. . Then would he add certain praifes, by telling 
what a peerlefs beaft the horfe was, the only 
ferviceable courtier, without flattery, the beaft of 
moft beauty, faithfulnefs, courage, and fuch more, 
that if I had not been a piece of a logician before 
I came to him, I think he would have perfuaded 
me to wifh myfelf a horfe." Sidney made good 
ufe of his mafter's leftbns, and in the fecond book 
of Arcadia he has admirably defcribed the manage- 
ment of a horfe by a graceful rider. 

In the following November, Sidney proceeded 
into Italy. He refrained unwillingly from viflt- 
ing Rome, for he had made a promife to Languet 
before parting with him that he would not go 
there. Languet dreaded the impreftion which 
might be made upon his fufceptible mind by the 
magnificence of the Papal City ; an exceffive 
caution, perhaps, for it was a vifit to Rome 
which made Luther a Reformer fixty years before. 
Yet much had been done in the interval to dimi- 
nifh the fcandals of the Church : the attractions 
of St. Peter's had been increafed by many mafter- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 23 

pieces of art, and the difference was wide between 
the great German preacher and an imaginative 
youth of nineteen. Sidney went to Venice, which 
was in fome refpects a place of more intereft to 
travellers than Rome. Thofe were the days 
when Venice was ftill " the revel of the earth, 
the mafque of Italy." The pompous annual 
ceremony, in which the Doge committed a wed- 
ding-ring to the fea, was fomething beyond an 
empty boaft, for Venice ftill retained her title to 
the empire of the fea ; and while the richeft pro- 
ducts of Europe and Afia were expofed to fale in 
her fquares, her pre-eminence as a fchool of arts 
and manners was not yet eclipfed by the more 
recent civilization of Paris. Gentlemen of all 
nations reforted thither, and to float in a gondola 
through her noifelefs ftreets was reputed to be an 
effential part of feeing what is called the world. 
The dramatifts of Queen Elizabeth's reign often 
take occafion to ridicule the foppery and infolence 
of young men who had been to Venice. Bifhop 
Hall, in his youthful fatires, inveighed ftill more 
earneftly againft thefe and other vices imported 
from abroad ; and in an effay written later he 
treats of the fame fubjecl. Lord Burleigh faid, 
" Suffer not thy fons to pafs the Alps, for they 
fhall learn nothing there but pride, blafphemy, 



24 The Life of 

and atheifm;" and no language can be ftronger 
than that which is afcribed to Sidney himfelf, 
though he wifely confines his ftrictures to the 
abufe of travel : — - 

"An Englishman that is Italianate 
Doth lightly prove a devil incarnate." 

It is not furprifing that doubts mould exift 
whether anything can be gained by travel at all 
worth the rifk of evil which is incurred. Cer- 
tainly thofe who vifit foreign countries need to 
have fixed principles of faith. In that cafe the 
enlargement of mind which travel gives tends to 
humility, wifdom, and charity. But if any one 
has not learned rightly the leflbns of his own 
home, he is not fit to travel yet. Experience of 
foreign manners makes the religion and morals 
which are founded on mere cuftom, and offers 
nothing better inftead ; its ufe, at the beft, being 
mainly political. The queftion is difcufTed by 
Hampden, in a letter to Sir John Eliot, who had 
confulted him as to the education of his fon. He 
advifed delay and more ftudy at home before the 
young man went abroad. " 'Tis a great hazard, 
methinks," he writes, " to fee fo fweet a difpofi- 
tion guarded with no more, amongft a people 
whereof many make it their religion to be fuper- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 25 

ftitious in impiety, and their behaviour to be 
affected in manners. But God hath defigned 
him (I hope) for his own fervice betimes, and 
ftirred up your providence to hufband him thus 
early for great affairs. Then mail he be fure to 
find Him in France that Abraham did in Sichem 
and Jofeph in Egypt, under whofe wing alone is 
perfect fafety." 

Sidney was manifertly called to fC great affairs," 
both by his birth and by his high qualities of 
mind ; and the true ufe of travel appears nowhere 
more clearly than in his correfpondence. The 
following letter was written for the guidance of 
his brother Robert about five years after this 
time, but its contents make it fuitable to be cited 
here. 

" My Good Brother, 

" You have thought unkindnefs in me that I 
have not written oftener unto you, and have 
defired I mould write unto you fomething of 
my opinion touching your travel ; you being 
perfuaded my experience thereunto be fomething 
which I muft needs confefs, but not as you take 
it ; for you think my experience grows from the 
good things which I have learned ; but I know 
the only experience which I have gotten is to 



26 The Life of 

find how much I might have learned, and how 
much indeed I have miffed, for want of directing 
my courfe to the right end and by the right 

means I am fure you have imprinted in 

your mind the fcope and mark you mean by your 
pains to moot at ; for if you mould travel but to 
travel or to fay you had travelled, certainly you 
fhould prove a pilgrim to no purpofe. But I 
prefume fo well of you, that though a great 
number of us never thought in ourfelves why we 
went, but a certain tickling humour to do as 
other men had done, you purpofe, being a gen- 
tleman born, to furnifh yourfelf with the know- 
ledge of fuch things as may be ferviceabie for 
your country and calling ; which certainly ftands 
not in the change of air, for the warmer!: fun 
makes not a wife man ; no, nor in learning 
languages, although they be of ferviceabie ufe, 
for words are but words in what language foever 
they be, and much lefs in that all of us come 
home full of difguifements, not only of apparel, 
but of our countenances, as though the credit of 
a traveller flood all upon his outride ; but in the 
right informing your mind with thofe things 
which are mofl notable in thofe places which 
you come unto. 

" Of which as the one kind is fo vain, as I 



Sir Philip Sidney. 27 

think ere it be long, like the mountebanks in 
Italy, we travellers mail be made fport of in 
comedies; fo may I juftly fay, who rightly 
travels with the eye of UlyfTes doth take one of 
the moft excellent ways of worldly wifdom. 
For hard fure it is to know England without 
you know it by comparing it with fome other 
country, no more than a man can know the 
fwiftnefs of his horfe without feeing him well 

matched This, therefore, is one notable 

ufe of travellers, which ftands in the mind and 
correlative knowledge of things, in which kind 
comes in the knowledge of all leagues betwixt 
prince and prince ; the topographical defcription 
of each country ; how the one lies by Situation 
to hurt or help the other ; how they are to the 
fea, well harboured or not; how ftored with 
mips, how with revenue, how with fortification 
and garrifons ; how the people, warlike, trained, 
or kept under ; with many other fuch considera- 
tions, which as they confufedly come into my 
mind, fo I, for want of leifure, haftily fet them 

down The other kind of knowledge 

is of them which {land in the things which are in 
themfelves either fimply good or fimply bad, 
and fo ferve either for a right inftruction or a 
fhunning example. Thefe Homer meant in this 



28 The Life of 

verfe, c Qui multos hominum mores cognovit et 
urbes.' * For he doth not mean by c mores ' 
how to look or put off one's cap with a new-found 
grace, although true behaviour is not to be de- 
fpifed : marry my herefy is, that the Englifh 
behaviour is beft in England and the Italian's in 
Italy. But c mores' he takes for that from 
which moral philofophy is fo called ; the certain- 
nefs of true difcerning of men's minds both in 
virtue, paffions, and vices. And when he fays, 
c cognovit urbes,' he means not, if I be not 
deceived, to have feen towns and marked their 
buildings ; for furely houfes are but houfes in 
every place : but he attends to their religion, 
politics, laws, bringing up of children, difcipline 
both for war and peace, and fuch-like. 

cc Thefe I take to be of the fecond kind, which 
are ever worthy to be known for their own fakes. 
As furely in the great Turk, though we have 
nothing to do with him, yet his difcipline in war 
matters is worthy to be known and learned. 
Nay, even in the kingdom of China, which is 
almoft as far as the Antipodes from us, their 
good laws and cuftoms are to be learned ; but to 

* " Wandering from clime to clime obfervant ftrayed, 

Their manners noted, and their ilates furveyed." — Pope. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 29 

know their riches and power is of little purpofe 
for us, fince that can neither advance nor hinder 
us. But in our neighbour countries, both thofe 
things are to be marked, as well the latter as the 
former. The countries fitted: for both thefe are 
thofe which you are going into. France is above 
all other moft needful for us to mark, efpecially 
in the former kind ; next is Spain and the Low 
Countries -, then Germany, which in my opinion 
excels all others as much in the latter confidera- 
tion as the other doth in the former ; yet neither 
are void of neither ; for as Germany, methinks, 
doth excel in good laws and well adminiftering of 
juftice, fo are we likewife to confider in it the 
many princes with whom we may have league, 
the places of trade, and means to draw both 
foldiers and furniture thence in time of need. 
So on the other fide, as in France and Spain, we 
are principally to mark how they ftand towards 
us both in power and inclination ; fo are they, not 
without good and fitting ufe, in the generality of 
wifdom to be known. As in France the courts 
of parliament, their fubal tern jurifdiclion, and their 
continual keeping of paid foldiers. In Spain, 
their good and grave proceedings, their keeping 
fo many provinces under them and by what 
manner, with the true points of honour. . . . 



30 T/ie Life of 

Flanders likewife, befides the neighbourhood with 
us, hath divers things to be learned, efpecially in 
governing their merchants and other trades. Alfo 
for Italy, we know not what we have, or can have, 
to do with them, but to buy their filks and their 
wines ; and as for the other point, except Venice, 
whofe good laws and cuftoms we can hardly pro- 
portion to ourfelves, becaufe they are quite of a 
contrary government ; there is little there but 
tyrannous opprerTion, and fervile yielding to them 
that have little or no right over them. And 
for the men you mall have there, although indeed 
fome be excellently learned, yet are they all given 
to counterfeit learning, as a man mail learn among 
them more falfe grounds of things than in any 
place elfe that I know ; for, from a tapfter 
upwards, they are all difcourfers in certain matters 
and qualities, as horfemanfhip, weapons, painting, 
and fuch are better there than in other countries ; 
but for other matters as well if not better you 
mall have them in nearer places. 

cc Now refteth in my memory but this point, 
which is the chief to you of all others : which is 
the choice of what men you are to direct yourfelf 
to ; for it is certain no veffel can leave a worfe 
tafte in the liquor it contains, than a wrong teacher 
infects an unfkilful hearer with that which hardly 



Sir Philip Sidney. 3 1 

will ever out. I will not tell you Tome abfurdi- 
ties I have heard travellers tell : tafte him well 
before you drink much of his doctrine. And 
when you have heard it, try well what you have 
heard before you hold it for a principle ; for one 
error is the mother of a thoufand. But you may 
fay, how mail I get excellent men to take pains 
to fpeak with me ? Truly, in few words, either 
by much expenfe or much humblenefs." 

Sidney declared to Languet for himfelf, that 
his chief felicity, next to the worfhip of God, 
confided in the friendfhip of good men. He 
was happy in the porTeflion of fuch a friend, to 
whom he could look for fympathy and encou- 
ragement in his virtuous aims ; as he faid of him 
in the fong already quoted : — 

" His good ftrong ftaff my flippery years upbore, 
He Hill hoped well becaufe I loved truth." 

His letters to Languet have a playful ferioufnefs 
and modefty very becoming in a young man 
addre fling one fo much his fenior, and the corre- 
fpondence between them gives a vivid picture of 
the " lovely and familiar gravity" which drew all 
kinds of men to delight in Sidney's fociety. The 
tendernefs of his difpofition is agreeably illuftrated 
by a remark of Languet's. cc I am amufed at 



32 The Life of 

your complaints of the ungracious behaviour of 
fome friends who went away without bidding you 
farewell. You imagine perhaps that all men 
have the fame obliging character as yourfelf." 

Perfonal matters, however, occupy only a fmall 
portion of the correfpondence. Sidney's thoughts 
were ftrongly intent on politics, and the ftate of 
Europe was fuch as to excite the deepeft anxiety. 
The Low Countries were engaged in a feemingly 
hopelefs conteft with Spain, and the caufe of the 
Reformation throughout Europe hung upon the 
iflue. At the fame time Germany and Italy were 
menaced by the encroachments of the Turks, who 
had lately conquered Cyprus, and concluded peace 
with Venice while Sidney was there. Thefe are 
the chief fubjects of his letters. When his friend 
the gallant Lewis of NafTau was defeated and 
killed, he wrote, cc If there is any one who fees 
what is to follow, and is not moved by it, I fay 
he mould either take his place among the gods, 
or be claifed with the brutes in human form." 

There is no certain account of Sidney's meet- 
ing with any of the illuftrious men of fcience or 
letters who were then living in Italy ; although it 
has been conjectured, with fome probability, that 
he may have known TafTo and others. But the 
fruits of his having ftudied Italian literature with 



Sir Philip Sidney, 33 

delight appear in his Arcadia. He wrote with 
much intereft of his ftudies, which he purfued 
for fome months at the Univerfity of Padua. 
That univerfity was famous for the expontion of 
Ariftotle's Ethics, as we gather from Shakefpeare, 
and Languet recommended this ftudy to Sidney. 
He took efpecial pleafure in the Politics of the 
fame great philofopher. cc Of Greek literature," 
he told Languet, cc I wifh to learn only fo much 
as fhall fuffice for the perfect understanding of 
Ariftotle." Afterwards, however, he learned to 
love Plato. Hiftory was at prefent his favourite 
ftudy. In one of his letters he alludes to a theory, 
founded on the language of the Cymry, and com- 
paring curioufly with the refearches of modern 
fcholars, that Wales was the native country of 
Brennus, the conqueror of Rome. The advice 
which he afterwards gave to his brother Robert, 
doubtlefs founded on his own purfuits at this 
feafon, contains remarks on ancient hiftorians 
which mow that he had given to them much 
thoughtful attention. He alfo urges his brother 
to fC take delight in mathematics." Speaking of 
Latin fcholarfhip, he finds fault with the Oxford 
profeflbrs for minding words to the neglect of 
things ; and with a fimilar downright love of 
reality he gives his advice about fword exercife. 

D 



34 fie Life of 

tc When you play at weapons, I would have you 
get thick caps and brafers, and play out your play 
luridly." In the fame letter he writes, cc Sweet 
brother, take a delight to keep and increafe your 
mufic ; you will not believe what a want I find of 
it in my melancholy time." 

While Sidney was at Venice his portrait was 
painted by Paul Veronefe. This picture does 
not appear to exift, and Languet defcribes it as 
more like his brother. It is poffible that Sidney's 
features might be found among the groups of 
noble cavaliers and fquires with which that great 
artift filled his canvas. His figure was tall and 
well formed ; his hair of a dark amber colour ; 
his face refembling that of his fitter Mary,* 
fomewhat too feminine if criticifed, but very 
beautiful. Languet afterwards received another 
portrait as a prefent from his friend, and of this 
he fays, c< It is fo beautiful, and fo ftrongly re- 
fembling you that I value nothing more. The 
painter has reprefented you fad and thoughtful. 
I mould have been better pleafed if your face had 
worn a more cheerful look when you fat for the 
painting." In truth, he loved Sidney as if he 
had been his own fon. Exiled from his native 



# An excellent portrait of the Countefs of Pembroke is in 
the National Collection. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 35 

country France, where he had loft all his kindred 
and his deareft friends in the civil wars and in the 
fatal mafTacre, the whole affeftion of his lonely 
life was centred upon the young Englifhman 
whom Providence had fent in his way to cheer 
his declining years. His letters to Sidney were 
long and frequent, and he was contented to receive 
occafional replies. 

After a fojourn of eight months in Venice and 
Padua, Sidney left Italy in the fummer of 1574, 
and pafTed through Germany rapidly on a vifit 
to Poland. The throne of that kingdom was 
then vacant. Henry of Valois, the Duke of 
Anjou, had been elected king the year before, 
after a long interregnum ; but he had fcarcely 
arrived from Paris when he received intelligence 
of the death of his brother Charles IX, by which 
he fucceeded to the French crown. He deferted 
his fubjedls without delay, fiealing by night from 
the caftle of Cracow, and leaving the kingdom in 
confufion. But his eagernefs to return to France 
did not prevent him from lingering at Venice, 
where he was entertained fumptuoufly while 
Sidney was there. It was immediately after- 
wards that Sidney travelled through Poland, the 
condition of which was full of intereft for fo in- 
quiring a ftudent of politics. He had an oppor- 



36 The Life of 

tunity of obferving that which he defcribes in his 
romance with great force of language as the worft 
kind of oligarchy — the arbitrary government of 
nobles in the interval between two reigns. By 
the good offices of Languet he had introductions 
, )( to fome Poles of high rank; and it is afferted, with 
fome probability, that he took part in a campaign 
againft the Mufcovites, and gained there his firft 
experience of war. # The mad Ivan, furnamed 
the Terrible, was then upon the Ruffian throne, 
and had much to do to preferve his independence 
between his more powerful neighbours the Poles 
and Tartars. 

Sidney's travels led him into Hungary, where 
he noted with admiration the foldier-like bearing 
of the people, and their cuftom at feafts and 
fimilar affemblies of ringing heroic ballads of 
their ancestors' valour. There were Hungarians 
ftill living who had fought under Lewis, the laft 
of their native kings, at the calamitous battle of 
Mohacz, when the flower of their youth and 
knighthood was cut off by the Turks, and an 
incredible number of captives fold into flavery. 
The kingdom had been devastated again and 
again by invasion, fince it had been joined to the 
other inheritances of the houfe of Auftria. And 

* Aubrey, quoted by Pears, xlviii. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 37 

although the laft of the great Moflems, Soly- 
nian the Magnificent, was dead, and, the fpring- 
tide of their conquefts had begun to fubfide, the 
Sultan's arms continued for many generations to 
be a terror to the German empire. Sidney had^ 
thought of vifiting Conftantinople to infpect the 
fources of this formidable military power. But 
his leave of abfence was already expired ; and, 
whether for this or for other reafons, he gave up 
the project. 

During the winter he enjoyed again the fociety 
of Languet at Vienna ; and in May of the follow- 
ing year he returned to England. He had ex- 
ceeded by twelve months the term for which his 
original permirTion to travel was granted. The 
profefTed object of his tour, to learn foreign 
languages, was attained indifferently well : he 
could read French, Italian, Spanifh, and Dutch, 
and had ftudied German a little, though he never 
fucceeded in mattering the pronunciation. He 
had thus acquired enough to juftify his fubfe- 
quent reputation at the Englifh Court as a lin- 
guirt ; for Latin being a univerfal means of com- 
munication, the ftudy of modern languages was 
rare. But he had made far greater proficiency 
in acquirements of a more valuable kind, having 
gained a wonderful ftore of knowledge, both of 
men and books, for his age : a judgment fcarcely 



3 8 The Life of 

lefs found than that of an experienced ftatefman: 
and a power, fuch as few men ever pofTefs, of 
apprehending the firft principles of every fubjecl, 
whether it pertained to religion, politics, philo- 
fophy, or tafte. Nor did he lefs excel in the 
graceful arts and exercifes of youth. Among 
the accomplished gentlemen who furrounded the 
throne of Elizabeth, he was at once obferved by 
the quick eye of his Sovereign and diftingulfhed 
by her favour. She called him cc her Philip," 
in contraft to Philip of Spain. 

Little is known of his life for the next year, 
during which his time was apparently paffed 
chiefly at Court. In the autumn of 1576 he 
made a journey to Ireland, whither his father had 
gone as Lord Deputy. Languet exprefTed an 
anxious fear of the perils of his journey acrofs 
cc the rugged Welm mountains and the ftormy 
Irifh fea." The Irifh were in arms againft the 
Government, and Philip, during this vifit to his 
father, faw fome fervice in the North under the 
Earl of EfTex ; of which, however, the particulars 
are not recorded.* Before the end of the year 
he came back from Ireland to the Court. 

* G. Whetftone's poem in Sir Alexander Bofwell's col- 
lection. In the Sidney Papers, feveral letters of the year 
1576-7 have been mifplaced. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 39 

Early in 1577 Kis fitter Mary was married to 
Henry, Earl of Pembroke, fon of the Earl who 
had commanded the Englifh army in Flanders, 
and himfelf, as was afterwards proved, a wife and 
valiant nobleman, one of the foremofl to volun- 
teer in defence of England on the approach of 
the Armada, when he equipped 300 horfe and 
500 foot at his own expenfe. Writing on the 
fubject of this marriage to Leicefler, in February, 
Sir Henry fays, cc Good my Lord, fend Philip to 
me ; there was never father had more need of his 
fon than I have of him. Once again, good my 
Lord, let me have him." He was difappointed of 
his fon's vifit by a caufe which in other refpecls 
muft have gladdened his heart. 

A fpecial embarTy was fent in this fpring to 
Rodolph, Emperor of Germany, on his acceffion, 
and Philip was fele&ed for ambafTador. The 
charge was one of unufual refponfibility ; for 
while his oftenfrble commiffion was to condole 
with the young Emperor on his father's death, 
he was inftrucled to found the German princes in 
reference to the great queftions of religion and 
policy which divided Europe. Among the heads 
of his instructions are thefe : to afcertain the new 
Emperor's difpofition and that of his brothers ; 
by whofe advice he is guided ; when he is likely 



40 The Life of 

to marry ; what princes in Germany are moft 
favourably difpofed to him ; what the ftate of his 
revenue is ; how he agrees with his brothers, and 
what portion they have. He was alfo directed 
to pay a fimilar vifit of condolence and diplomacy 
to the Counts Palatine of the Rhine, who had 
lately loft their father. An article was added, at 
his own inftance, by which he had leave to falute 
at his difcretion thofe Princes who might be inte- 
rested in the caufe of the Reformed Religion, or 
contending for their national liberty. He was 
only in his twenty-third year when thefe impor- 
tant charges were laid upon him. His appoint- 
ment was due to the Queen's perfonal efteem, 
though it may probably have been in fome 
meafure promoted by the influence of Leicefter, 
jwho had recently entertained the Queen with the 
celebrated revels of Kenilworth. The choice 
was fignally juftified by Sidney's conduct. In 
thofe days men feem to have attained to maturity 
more early in life than at prefent. Sidney's 
father, for inftance, had been fent at the fame age 
as ambarTador to France. William of Orange 
had commanded the Imperial army when ftill 
younger. Don John of Auftria, at the age of 
twenty- fix, had gained the great victory of Lepanto 
over the Turks, at the head of the united navy of 



Sir Philip Sidney. 41 

Chriftendom. The rarity of fuch cafes in our 
time is eafily explained. The circle of knowledge 
is wider, fo that fchool education extends over a 
greater number of years. In the peaceful ftate 
of modern fociety there are fewer emergencies of 
difficulty and danger, in which felf-reliance is 
chiefly acquired. The opportunities of distinc- 
tion are fewer, for the fame caufe ; and while 
under a more equal constitution merit has now a 
furer profpect of being recognized in the end, 
there is lefs room for favour or high rank to 
fecond the advantage of brilliant talents by bring- 
ing them early into notice. 

Sidney feems to have endeavoured, with fome 
little oflentation, to imprefs foreign nations witH 
his dignity; if anything may be inferred from 
the fact which has been thought worth recording, 
that he caufed his arms and titles to be emblazoned 
on a fhield and fufpended outfide his lodgings 
wherever he refted on his journey. Through 
life he was fond of fplendour to a fault, and there 
may have been fomething unufual in manner 
which caufed fo trifling a circumftance to be 
chronicled. But in negotiations his behaviour was 
peculiarly Ample and unaffected. He trailed to 
the inherent power of plain truth to a degree 
which is not ufual in diplomacy. Of this his 



42 The Life of 

interview with the Elector Palatine is an inftance. 
Fie found him differing from his brother, Prince 
Cafimir, on fome of the theological queftions 
which already rent the union of the Proteftants, 
and changing the form of worfhip which his 
father had eftablifhed, to introduce Lutheran 
minifiers. Thereupon Sidney ventured to warn 
him unrefervedly of the confequences which might 
follow. fC One thing I was bold to add in my 
fpeech," he reports to the Secretary of State ; 
tc to defire him, in her Majefty's name, to have 
merciful confideration for the Church of the reli- 
gion fo notably eftablifhed by his father, as in all 
Germany there is not fuch a number of excellent 
learned men, and truly would rue any man to fee 
the defolation of them. I laid before him as well 
as I could the dangers of the mightiefx princes in 
Christendom by entering into like violent changes, 
the wrong he mould do his worthy father utterly 
to abolifh what he had inftituted, and fo as it 
were condemn him, befides the example he mould 
give his posterity to handle him the like." 

He found the Emperor at Prague, and had 
audience with him on Eafter Monday. Accord-, 
ing to the commands which he received, he ex- 
prelfed the Queen's grief at the lofs of the late 



Sir Philip Sidney. 43 

Emperor his father, both for public reafons and 
for the private goodwill between Maximilian and 
herfelf ; adding her Majefty's hope that he would 
follow his father in his virtues and his manner of 
government, and further explaining to him the 
Queen's policy in the Netherlands. Rodolph 
anfwered briefly in Latin, giving her "Serenity" 
very great thanks, and alluring her of his know- 
ledge of the goodwill which his father had borne 
towards her. To the latter part of the Queen's 
meffage he replied vaguely, faying, however, that 
the rule he mould chiefly follow would be his 
father's imitation. 

<c The next day," Sidney writes, cc I delivered 
her Majefty's letters to the Emprefs, with the 
Angular fignification of her Majefty's great good- 
will to her, and her Majefty's wiihing of her to 
advife her fon to a wife and peaceable government. 
Of the Emperor deceafed I ufed but few words, 
becaufe in truth I faw it bred fome trouble unto 
her to hear him mentioned in that kind. She 
anfwered me with many courteous fpeeches, and 
great acknowledging of her own beholdingnefs to 
her Majefty: and for her fon, fhe faid, fne hoped 
he would do well, but that for her own part fhe 
had given herfelf from the world, and would not 



44 The Life of 

greatly ftir from thenceforward in it. Then did 
I deliver the Queen of France* her letter, me 
{landing by the Emprefs, ufing fuch fpeeches as 
I thought were fit for her double forrow, and her 
Majefty's goodwill unto her, confirmed by her 
wife and noble governing of herfelf in the time 
of her being in France. Her anfwer was full of 
humblenefs, but me fpake fo low that I could not 
underftand many of her words. From them I 
went to the young Princes, and pafTed on each 
fide certain compliments." 

He proceeded to inform himfelf of the parti- 
culars contained in his inftructions, of which he 
wrote a full report in the fame letter to Walfing- 
ham, who was now Secretary of State. His 
opinion of the young Emperor was on the whole 
unfavourable. He defcribes him as very Spanifh 
in appearance and manners, ftrongly inclined to 
wars, few of words, fullen of difpofition, very 
fecret and refolute, deficient in his power of win- 
ning friends, though conftant in keeping them. 
This minute defcription of Rodolph's character, 
in which Sidney was doubtlefs aided by the 
penetration and knowledge of Languet, proved 



* The widow of Charles IX, a daughter of the Emperor 
Maximilian. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 45 

in the main correct, but his acts mowed no figns 
of his warlike difpofition. He neglected public 
affairs, and fpent his time in his ftables or in his 
laboratory, leaving the adminiftration of his king- 
dom and empire to bigoted Catholics. 

From Prague Sidney returned to Heidelberg, 
where he had the interview with the Elector 
Palatine Lewis which has been already related. 
The Elector's brother Cafimir had previoufly 
become acquainted with Sidney, who had paffed 
through Heidelberg on his way to the Imperial 
Court. They continued faft friends through life. 
He was one of the moil zealous Proteftant 
champions, an active leader in the civil wars 
both of France and the Netherlands ; and Sidney 
was inftructed to demand of him the repayment 
of a loan which Elizabeth had made him on 
account of thefe. Cafimir, the Duke of Brunf- 
wick, and the Landgrave William of HefTe are 
named by Sidney as the only princes who were 
likely to enter into any Proteftant league, and 
even they c< rather as it were to ferve the Queen 
than any way elfe." Of the other German princes 
he faid that they had cc no care but how to grow 
rich and to pleafe their fenfes, thinking they mould 
be fafe though the world were on fire about them." 
Already the zeal of the Reformed Churches was 



46 The Life of 

cooling or expending itfelf in feclarian contro- 
verfies. In Bohemia Sidney found indifference 
to the liberty of public worfhip; in Saxony, per- 
fection of Lutherans by Calvinifts ; in the Pala- 
tinate, perfecution of Calvinifts by Lutherans. 
Meanwhile the Catholics regained their ftrength ; 
and thus the courfe of the Reformation in Ger- 
many receded, until, in the next generation, the 
Thirty Years' War overfpread the whole empire 
with mifery and ruin. 

Sidney came home through the Netherlands. 
At Bruffels he went to kifs the hand of the newly 
appointed Viceroy, Don John of Auftria. This 
Prince had filled Europe with the fame of his 
romantic daring ; and though as yet he was at 
peace with Elizabeth, it was rumoured that he 
would before long marry Mary Queen of Scots, 
conquer England, and reftore the Roman Catholic 
religion. He regarded himfelf as a Crufader 
againft Turks and Proteftants alike. So he received 
Sidney, when he was fir ft prefented to him, with 
more than Spanifh haughtinefs. After a while, 
however, he was fo much attracted by Sidney's 
brilliant qualities as to pay him a degree of refpect 
and honour which aftonifhed thofe who knew his 
difpofition. 

With Don John's great antagonift Sidney be- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 47 

came acquainted immediately afterwards ; for, 
by the Queen's fpecial orders, he proceeded to 
Holland.* It had been his own earneft defire 
to vifit William of Orange, " Father William," 
as he was called by the Dutch, who owed to him, 
under God, the bleiTings of religious and civil 
freedom. Of the many friends by whofe efteerrP 
Sidney was honoured, the Prince of Orange may 
juftly be regarded as the greater!:. Love of his 
country had led him to facrifice his profperity and 
happinefs in a conteft the moil defperate and mod 
glorious, perhaps, recorded in hiftory ; and the 
trials of manifold calamity and innumerable cares, 
while fortifying his refolute foul againft human 
weaknefs, taught him, with increasing years, to 
put his truft in Heaven with more fervent devo- 
tion and purer faith. His outward appearance 
mowed the change which his mind had under- 
gone. Formerly he had been confpicuous among 
the fumptuous nobles of Belgium for luxury and 
courtly refinement ; but for many years his 
thoughts and his ample fortune had been ab- 
forbed in the conflict with Spain ; and a ftiort 
time after Sidney's vifit, Lord Brooke faw him at 
Delft, in a gown cc fuch as an Englifh law-ftudent 

* Languet, Correfpondence, 1577. 



48 The Life of 

would be afhamed to wear," and a knit woollen 
waiftcoat like that of a waterman. The burgeffes 
of that town were his aflbciates, among whom he 
appeared as no more than their equal ; though 
his inward greatnefs manifefted itfelf as foon as 
he began to fpeak to his vifitor. On that occa- 
sion he told Lord Brooke, as a merTage from 
himfelf to the Queen, that cc he had been ac- 
quainted, as was well known, with all the greater!: 
men of Europe for many years, and that if he 
could judge, her Majefty had one of the ripeft 
counfellors of ftate in Sir Philip Sidney that this 
day lived in Europe ; on which he flaked his 
credit, till her Majefty might be pleafed to em- 
ploy him." The merTage remained undelivered, 
by Sidney's own requefr.; for he judged prudently 
that a commendation coming from abroad might 
neither advance his interefts nor pleafe the Queen. 
In this vifit of Sidney to the Prince of Orange, 
he is faid to have become fponfor to his child.* 
The Princefs gave him on his departure a gold 
chain and jewel, and William afterwards corre- 
fponded with him familiarly. 

His opinions on the ftate of Europe bear traces 
of the Prince's influence on his mind. According 

* Letter of E. Waterhoufe in Sidney Papers, June, 1577. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 49 

to William, the Spanim king aimed at reviving 
the univerfal empire of ancient Rome, and for the 
fake of the Pope's alliance feigned religion. 
France, ruled by a fucceffion of young and plea- 
fure-feeking princes, was of little weight in 
Europe ; and Elizabeth was to blame for fuffer- 
ing the Proteftants in that kingdom to fail for 
want of fupport, and altogether not enough upon 
her guard againft the arts of Philip. Germany 
was a blind inftrument of the Spanim. tyrant's 
plans. Upon this general view of the policy of 
Europe Elizabeth acted at length, after many 
years of hesitation, during which Sidney fupported 
it conftantly through favour and disfavour. 

He returned from his embafly in June. Wal- 
fingham immediately wrote to Sir Henry to 
announce the Queen's approval of his fon's con- 
duct in his difficult miffion. cc It was," he faid, 
"well received and liked of her Majefty;" and 
he added, cc The honourable opinion he hath left 
behind him, with all the princes with whom he 
had to negotiate, hath left a moft fweet favour 
and grateful remembrance of his name in thofe 
parts. . . . There hath not been any gentleman, 
I am fure, thefe many years, who hath gone 
through fo honourable a charge with as great 
commendation as he. In consideration whereof 



50 The Life of 

I could not but communicate this part of my joy 
with your Lordmip." He ufed afterwards to fay 
that Philip far overfhot him with his own bow, 
though he had an influence in all countries, and 
a hand in all affairs. Another correfpondent 
defcribed his embaffy as profperous in every 
refpecl. " God bleffed him fo, that neither man, 
boy, nor horfe failed him or was fkk during this 
journey ; only Fulke Greville had an ague in 
his return at Rochester." To the affection of 
this conftant friend and companion, afterwards 
Lord Brooke, and anceftor of the prefent Earl 
of Warwick, we owe the beft part of what is 
known of Sidney. They were both admitted 
on the fame day to Shrewsbury fchool, and were 
intimate afTociates through life. The love which 
Fulke Greville bore to Sidney was little fhort of 
worfhip. After outliving him half a century he 
caufed this epitaph to be infcribed on his own 
tomb, which may be feen in St Mary's Church 
at Warwick : — 

Servant to Q^ Elizabeth, 

Counfellor to K. James, 

and Friend to Sir Philip Sidney. 

Trophaeum Peccati. 

The fenfe of the laft words is obfcure, but may 
"^ probably be thus interpreted: an honourable 



Sir Philip Sidney, 



5 l 



friendship is a trophy which holds up one's own 
faults to reproof. A fimilar fentiment is ex- 
prefTed in cc In Memoriam : " — 

" AH thefe have been, and thee mine eyes 
Have look'd on : if they look'd in vain, 
My fhame is greater who remain, 
Nor let thy wifdom make me wife." 




5 2 



The Life of 




Chapter III, 




COURT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

' In one thing only failing of the beft, 
That he was not fo happy as the reft." 

Spenser's Afirophel. 

T will not be altogether fuperfluous to 
recall a few particulars of the ftate of 
England when Sidney took his rank 
among her worthies. . Looking back 
with juft veneration to that heroic time, we are 
apt to confound the greatnefs of the men with 
the condition of the kingdom, and to imagine 
the England of Elizabeth as far more powerful, 
populous, and flouriming than it really was. 
For fecurity of perfon and property, and for the 
comforts of focial life, the remote parts of Ireland 
or the colonies are now at lead: as far advanced in 
civilization ; and fingle counties exceed in popu- 
lation and refources the whole realm of Elizabeth. 



Sir Philip Sidney, 53 

At that time, moreover, Scotland, inftead of 
adding to the national ftrength, was a dangerous 
rival kingdom. Ireland, though nominally fub- 
ject, was in armed rebellion under native chiefs, 
whofe determined courage exercifed all the wifdom 
and energy of Sir Henry Sidney, foiled two Earls 
of ErTex, and only yielded to the ikill of Mount- 
joy in the year of Elizabeth's death. Nothing 
remained of the rich provinces of France which 
had belonged to earlier Britifh fovereigns ; Calais, 
the laft pofleffion, having in the preceding reign 
fallen an eafy capture to the Duke of Guife. 
On the other hand, the vaft colonial empire of 
Great Britain had not yet begun. The firft 
fuccefsful attempts at colonization were made 
in the reign of James, for previous expeditions 
ferved only for difcovery and knowledge hardly 
won by failure. Internally, England was weak- 
ened by religious divilions fimilar to thofe which 
convulfed the reft of Europe. Though happily 
the Queen's able government, and her adherence 
in general to the principles of the Reformation, 
preferved the kingdom from civil war, fhe was 
menaced by more than one formidable rifing, and 
her life was in danger from conftant plots of the 
Papifts for her arTaflination. How terrible was 
the mere apprehenfion of this event may be in- 



54 ^ e Life of 

ferred from a letter of the Bifhop of London on 
the occafion of the maflacre at Paris, urging the 
minifters to behead the Queen of Scots without 
delay as a precaution for public fafety.* Another 
determined adverfary to the Crown was flowly 
riling in the faction of the Puritans, who began to 
threaten the Conftitution with republican theories 
of Church and State which they had learned from 
Geneva. As yet, however, the great body of the 
nation was bound together by the common fear 
of the Pope and the King of Spain. Minor 
differences were compofed by the dreadful re- 
membrance of the fires of Smithfield, and the 
more recent and fweeping atrocities of the Duke 
of Alva in the Netherlands. But befides the un- 
certainty of the fuccefTion and the horror of Papal 
and Spanim tyranny, other caufes confirmed the 
loyalty of the Englifh to their Protectant fove- 
reign, fo that it grew to be a kind of religion. 

The extraordinary worfhip which Elizabeth 
received was very characterise of that epoch. 
It was the age of tranfition from the days of 
chivalry to thofe of regular government. The 
refpect for women which belonged to the former, 
and had been their fhield againft lawlefs violence, 

* Letters publifhed by Sir H. Ellis. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 55 

continued in full vigour ftill as a fentiment : but 
women no longer flood in need of fuch protec- 
tion ; and knights who were ambitious to prove 
their gallantry were driven to feek adventures 
which did not readily offer themfelves. Extra- 
vagant feats of courage and fantaftic devotion 
had become a fafhion both in England and 
France ; and in Spain their prevalence is ftill 
more notorious from the ridicule which was caft 
upon them in the Romance of Don Quixote. 

Thus, as a Maiden Queen, the only one who 
had ever reigned over any nation known in hiftory, 
Elizabeth was a peculiar object of reverence to the 
knighthood and gentry of England. If this had 
been all, her popularity might have been limited 
to the upper clafTes of fociety ; but the mafs of 
the nation was difpofed to revere the Queen for 
another reafon, which acquired from afTociation a 
certain degree of facrednefs. The Royal fupre- 
macy was the moft tangible point at iftue with 
the Pope, to the multitude who had not learning 
nor inclination for deep queftions of theology. 
The ftrong national defire, exprefled by the words 
of Shakefpeare, — 

" That no Italian priefl 
Shall tithe or toll in our dominion," 

had grown to be almoft univerfal fince the reign 



56 The Life of 

of Mary, and had attached to the Reformation 
many lukewarm Christians who had beftowed no 
ferious thought on the principles of faving faith 
which were involved. The ill-taught populace 
faw for the mod: part with regret the images of 
their faints caft down in the churches, and miffed 
the obfervance of their feftivals. It would be 
unreafonable to fuppofe that the idolatrous wor- 
fhip of human excellence mould on a fudden have 
been altogether extinguished when the old idols 
were fwept away ; but one form which it affumed 
is curious, and could fcarcely have been anti- 
cipated. Saint worihip paffed over into hero 
worfhip. 

Comparing the writers of Elizabeth's time with 
our own, we cannot but obferve the fulfome praife 
which it was cuftomary to lavifh on eminent men 
whether diftinguifhed by virtue, genius, or courage. 
We at the prefent day are fo much inclined to the 
oppofite extreme of irreverent criticifm, that we 
find it hard to underftand how honeft and rational 
men could ufe fuch language as was common, 
efpecially in fpeaking of the Queen. The truth 
appears to be that a habit of veneration, originally 
directed to Roman Catholic faints, continued for 
a while after the removal of its objects ; and 
Elizabeth ftrangely fucceeded in a qualified de- 



U^XA, 



-.-v 



Sir Philip Sidney. 57 

gree to the idolatry of the Virgin Queen of 
Heaven. Mary has always been regarded by 
Catholics as in fome fenfe the Church perfonified. 
Elizabeth claimed for herfelf the title of Head of 
the Church, to which long ufe had given a myfte- 
rious and awful import* Nor is it an infignificant 
circumftance that Protectants applied to Elizabeth 
the vifion in the Apocalypfe, of the woman whom 
the great Dragon perfecuted. For that myftical 
woman, crowned with ftars and clothed with the 
fun, had been for centuries a familiar image of 
Mary, and an object of adoration. 

Thus Faith and Chivalry combined to invefl 
Elizabeth with attributes borrowed from the 
fading fuperftitions of each ; and her tempera- 
ment led her to make the moft of thefe advan- 
tages. Her appetite for praife was boundlefs ; 
no adulation was too profane or too coarfe to 
gratify her ; while her wifdom faw the importance 
of winning and preferving the popular goodwill 

* " Not choice 

But habit rules the unreflecting herd, 
And airy bands are hardeft to difown : 
Hence, with the fpiritual fovereignty transferred 
Unto itfelf, the Crown aflumes a voice 
Ofrecklefs mattery, hitherto unknown." 

Wordsworth. 



5 8 The Life of 

which was the only fure fupport of her throne. 
The imperioufnefs with which me exercifed her 
authority, in the government both of the State 
and of the Church, may fairly be called tyran- 
nical. Yet me was not altogether unworthy of 
her glory. Her high and refolute fpirit extorted 
the unwilling admiration of her bittereft enemies, 
and the hearts of her people thrilled at the words 
in which me defied the greateft king and the 
greateft captain of the time. Her feminine weak- 
nefTes were fo far reftrained by prudence that they 
never loft her the love or refped of her fubje&s. 
Though fond of drefs and magnificence, fhe was 
frugal ; and her partialities were balanced by a 
careful regard to the public fervice and to the 
advice of wife counfellors. Neither Leicefter 
nor EfTex gained that afcendancy in the govern- 
ment which James and Charles permitted to their 
favourites. Her furprifing difcernment alfo faved 
her preferences from the blame of folly. For in- 
ftance, when her handfome captain of the guard, 
Sir Chriftopher Hatton, was made Lord Chan- 
cellor, the lawyers were furious ; but in a mort 
time he not only won general efteem by his 
urbanity and induftry, but mowed legal abilities 
which no one had fufpecled. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 59 

A natural refult of the Queen's influence and 
character was that perfonal rivalries were mixed 
up with politics undifguifedly. In the highflown 
ftyle of the Court, Elizabeth's prefence was the 
fun, and to feek her goodwill was to feek light 
and warmth which were neceflary to life. The 
moil approved warriors and ftatefmen were ob- 
liged to become courtiers, and to enlift in their 
fervice every art which could delight the mind or 
the eye. Beauty of face and figure, tafte and 
fplendour in apparel, fkill in the tournament or 
in the dance, and, not leaft, a happy turn of 
flattery, were as ferviceable as real worth in 
bringing into notice the fortunate afpirant ; and 
if, like Raleigh, he had folid qualities befldes thofe 
which were on the furface, his voice was foon 
liftened to when the affairs of Europe were 
debated, whatever might have been his rank or 
parentage. England was overflowing with gene- 
rous enthufiafm, heroic enterprife, and widely- 
ranging ambition, of all which Elizabeth's court 
was the centre. Among the hoft of young men 
that were attracted thither Sidney had every title 
to diftinction, and the Queen received him after 
his return from Germany with higher favour than 
before. She made him her cupbearer, an office 



6o The Life of 

which was not without refponfibility or peril of 
poifon ; and me alfo gave him a lock of her 
hair.* On New Year's Day it was her cuftom to 
interchange prefents with many of the gentlemen 
and ladies of her Court. In fome lifts of thefe 
which have been preferved Sidney's name appears 
flrft among the efquires who received the Queen's 
gifts, which were always of gold plate. f The 
prefents which he made in return were various. 
In 1578 he gave her "a fmock of cambric edged 
with gold lace ;" in 1579, cc a waiftcoat of white 
farcenet, quilted and embroidered with gold and 
filver and filk of various colours ;" in 1580, cc a 
cup of cryftal with a cover ;" in 1583, " a jewel 
of gold, like a caftle, garnifhed with fmall dia- 
monds on the one fide, being a pot to fet flowers 
in." Elizabeth conferred on him among other 
penfions a finecure in Wales which was after- 
wards given to George Herbert by James I. 

Sidney took his honours without bafe ambition 
or vanity. He did not feek the high ftation which 
feemed to be within his reach. The influence 
which royal favour and his own talents gave him 
was employed for the welfare of his country, for 

* This is preferved at Wilton with fome verfes of Sidney's. 
f Nicholls : Progreffes of Queen Elizabeth. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 61 

the vindication of his friends, for the patronage 
of deferving men of every kind. For thefe ends 
he was willing to forego his private advancement. 
Nor did he choofe to practife the falfe and fervile 
adulation towards Elizabeth which me exacted as 
a right. So far, indeed, as courtefy required, he 
complied with the prevailing fafhion, as appears 
in the Mafque which he wrote for the Queen's 
entertainment at Wanftead. Yet his love of truth 
and manly courage led him to utter his mind 
with a flncerity which, while it commanded and 
retained her efteem, left her felf-love dirTatisfied. 
While others gave themfelves up to win favour 
in her eyes, Sidney preferred to pay his court 
where honours more genuine and more enduring 
were to be won. He became known not in 
England only, but throughout Europe, as the 
friend of men of letters. Poets, fcholars, mufi- 
cians, engineers, navigators, hiftorians, thronged 
his houfe to receive afliftance from his open purfe, 
and encouragement from his enthufiafm, which 
was ever ready to be kindled by any noble idea. 
His London refidence was the houfe of Lei- 
cester, near where Temple Bar now {lands ; and 
his profpective inheritance of the Earl's eftates, as 
well as thofe of his other childlefs uncle, the Earl 
of Warwick, added considerable value to his 



62 The Life of 

patronage. But the fupport which he gave by 
his name and money was made doubly precious 
by his fine tafte and ftill more exquifke delicacy 
of feeling. The dedications which he received 
were almoft innumerable.* The great fcholar 
Henry Stephens infcribed a work to him; and 
fent him a copy of the Greek Teftament, with a 
tenderly afFeclionate letter. Dr. Powell, the 
author of a Hiftory of Wales, addreffed his book 
to Sidney, exhorting him to thank God for his 
good gifts, and ufe them to the glory of God and 
to his country's benefit. Other books dedicated 
to him were Hakluyt's firft volume of Voyages, 
the Poetica Geographia of Lambert Dane, the 
firft Englifh Tranflation of TafTo, a verfion of a 
Spanifh Treatife on the Art of War, and a work 
by Theophilus Banco, on the Logic of Ramus, 
which was the favourite ftudy of Sidney's friend 
and fecretary William Temple, and engaged the 
thoughts of learned men much till it was fuper- 
feded by the bolder theories of Defcartes and the 
philofophy of Bacon. 

One of Sidney's friends, Giordano Bruno, has 
obtained an unenviable celebrity. He was burnt 

* Dr. Zouch has given a copious lift of thefe at the end of 
his Life of Sidney. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 63 

by the Inquifition for a book which he had dedi- 
cated to Sidney, and his memory was branded 
with the name of Atheift. It was a common art 
of the Papifts to ftigmatize thus any one whofe 
fpeculations difturbed their eafe or their bigotry, 
and Bruno was one of the leaft cautious among 
the philofophical inquirers of whom the age was 
rife. The nominal offence for which he was 
brought to the ftake feems to have been that he 
held the theory of the plurality of worlds, which 
has fince found orthodox advocates. His real 
crime was that he derided the fables of the. 
Church of Rome. 

Pofterity owes a deep obligation to Sidney 
in refpect of Edmund Spenfer. He was the firft 
to recognize the rare poetical powers of the author 
of the Faery Queen. He invited him to Penf- 
hurft, and in friendly converfations encouraged 
the bafhful poet to unfold the treafures of his 
rich and beautiful mind. There, perhaps, Spenfer 
compofed his Shepherd's Calendar, which he 
dedicated to Sidney : — 

" Go, little book, thyfelf prefent, 
A child whofe parent is unkent, 
To him who is the Prefident 
Of noblenefs and chivalry." 

Sidney is generally fuppofed to have introduced 



64 The Life of 

him to Leicefter, by whom he was brought to the 
notice of Elizabeth. 

There is a popular tale that Spenfer, while yet 
in obfcurity, fent a portion of the Faery Queen 
to Sidney, who was fo much delighted with it that 
he promifed the author 50/. for the firft ftanza, 
and as much more for the next, until the fum 
amounted to 200/., when he ordered his fteward 
to pay the poet at once, and fend him away, left 
he mould ruin himfelf by reading more. Tradi- 
tion fpecifies the powerful defcription of the Cave 
of Defpair, in the ninth Canto of the firft Book, 
ftanzas 33 to 36. In itfelf the anecdote is 
improbable in a high degree ; but fuch fables 
are not altogether valuelefs as illuftrating com- 
mon opinion ; and this one difplays, while it 
exaggerates, Sidney's common repute for liberality 
and for warm admiration of Spenfer. Another 
tradition, relating to the fame part of Spenfer 's 
poem, is more likely to be true ; that the author 
intended to portray Sidney in his character of 
Prince Arthur. There is alfo fome ground for 
fuppofing that the plan of the poem may have 
been originally fuggefted by Sidney. 

A iingle exception to Sidney's univerfal favour 
to men of letters only puts his geniality in a more 
pleaiing light. One Stephen Goflbn wrote an 



Sir Philip Sidney. 65 

attack on poets and poetry, and prefumed to 
dedicate his book to Sidney, for which he was, as 
Spenfer relates, <c fcorned : if at leaft it be in the 
goodnefs of that nature to fcorn." 

At the fame time Sidney was himfelf acquiring 
fame as a poet. His verfes, though only circu- 
lated in manufcript, were much read and praifed 
about the Court, and his fayings were in every 
one's mouth. His father, in a letter to Robert 
Sidney foon after Philip's return from Germany, 
writes thus : cc Follow the direction of your moft 
loving brother : imitate his virtues, ftudies, and 
actions ; he is a rare ornament of this age, the 
very formular that all well-difpofed young gentle- 
men of our Court do form their manners and life 

by In truth, I fpeak it without flattery 

of him or of myfelf, he hath the moft rare virtues 
that ever I found in any man." 

In the particulars of Sidney's life there are 
more inftances than one in which he is to be 
blamed. There would be fome excufe for treat- 
ing thefe faults lightly ; for in no refpect did he 
belie his renown as a true-hearted gentleman. 
They might almoft be patted over in filence 
without difingenuoufnefs. Yet both virtue and 
truth are too holy to be mifreprefented for the fake 
of any one's fame, and the higheft examples are in 

F 



66 The Life of 

favour of fetting down fairly in a good man's life 
his errors and ihortcomings. The fins of Sidney 
are outbreaks of a vehement foul, frank and 
generous even in its exceffes, and tempered with 
a hearty love of virtue ; fuch fins as few men 
would live without committing, and many would 
repeat without fcruple : fuch fins, neverthelefs, 
as mould be remembered with fhame, as thefe 
were by Sidney. Refentment, pafiionate love and 
pride, emotions which no law, but only the Spirit 
of Chrift, can govern, overcame him under 
circumstances of extraordinary provocation. As 
far as his actions are concerned he paffed through 
thefe temptations blamelefs, but neither in thought 
nor in word was he innocent. 

Immediately on his return to England he be- 
came involved in party conteft on his father's 
account. Sir Henry Sidney's government in 
Ireland had been affailed by a ftrong faction at 
home, and Philip was compelled to decline Prince 
Cafimir's invitation to join the army of the Nether- 
lands, for fear that his father's caufe mould fuffer 
by his abfence. cc I ftrive between honour and 
neceffity," wrote Sir Henry. Cf If you think not 
my matters of that weight and difficulty, but that 
they may well enough by myfelf or fome other 
without your affiftance be brought to an honour- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 67 

able end, I will not be againft your determination." 
A new form of land-tax, which had been impofed 
by Sir Henry on the Englifh Pale, led indirectly 
to feveral acrimonious difputes. The Earl of 
Ormond, whofe intereft at the Court was great, 
having obtained from the Queen the exemption 
of his property, Sir Henry remonftrated againft 
this partiality as a great and juft caufe of difcontent 
to others. His expoftulations were coldly received, 
and he began to hear rumours that he was about 
to be recalled. He complained indignantly to the 
Queen, — Cf When I look into the fervice that I 
have done, the care and travail that I have taken, 
and the found confcience I bear that I have ferved 
you faithfully, truly, and profitably, I cannot but 
lament with forrow of heart and grief of mind to 
receive fuch fharp and bitter letters from your 
Majefty; which fo much have perplexed me in 
body and mind fince I received them, as I mail 
find no comfort till your Majefty be fully in- 
formed and thoroughly fatisfied how I have been 
mifreported to you ; and they that fo have in- 
formed you receive the juft reward of their un- 
truths." Political matters were conducted with 
fo much fecrefy that he was not able to afcertain 
who were his enemies, but he naturally fufpecled 
the Earl of Ormond. Philip entertained the fame 



68 The Life of 

fufpicion. His dutiful affection led him to take 
his father's part with warmth ; and the more fo 
as he believed him to have been foully wronged. 
On one occafion Ormond fpoke to him at Court, 
and he remained filent with marked intention. 
The expectation of a quarrel caufed fome excite- 
ment in the Court at Oatlands ; but the Earl 
faid cc he would accept no quarrel from a young 
gentleman that is bound by nature to defend his 
father's caufes, and who is by nature furnifhed 
with fo many virtues as he knew Mr. Philip to 
be." Philip was touched by his magnanimity, 
and they were foon afterwards reconciled. 

A more ferious incident is connected with the 
fame affairs. Sir Henry Sidney's defpatches were 
communicated, as he thought, to his enemies. 
Whatever meffages paffed between his fon and 
himfelf became known to them. The perfon 
upon whom Philip's fufpicion fell was Molyneux, 
Sir Henry's fecretary ; to whom he wrote the 
following violent letter : — 

"Mr. Molyneux, 
cc Few words are beft. My letters to my father 
have come to the eyes of fome ; neither can I 
condemn any but you for it. If it be fo, you 
have played the very knave with me ; and fo I 



Sir Philip Sidney. 69 

will make you know if I have good proof of it. 
But that for fo much as is paft. For that is to 
come, I aflure you before God, that if ever I know 
you to do as much as read any letter I write to 
my father, without his commandment, or my con- 
fent, I will thruft my dagger into you. And 
truft to it, for I fpeak it in earneft. In the 
meantime, farewell. From Court, this laft of 
May, 1578, by me, 

Cf Philip Sidney." 

Molyneux's reply is a temperate and dignified 
defence of himfelf againft this fufpicion, which 
feems to have been groundlefs. He remained for 
many years in the fervice of the family ; and 
Philip had occafion to folicit his intereft in Ireland 
on behalf of Lord Brooke and of himfelf. An 
eloquent and affectionate memoir of Sir Henry, 
Lady Mary, and Philip, which is appended to 
Holinfhed's Chronicle, is from the pen of Moly- 
neux. 

Sir Henry Sidney was recalled in the fame 
year, 1 578, much to the regret of the Irifh, whom 
he had ruled with great moderation and equity, 
but to his own joy ; for he looked upon his re- 
iidence in Ireland as an exile ; and as he was fail- 
ing homeward, he applied to himfelf the Pfalm, 



70 The Life of 

cc When Ifrael came out of Egypt, and the houfe 
of Jacob from among a ftrange people."* His 
immediate fucceffor was Sir William Drury, who 
was followed, in 1580, by Lord Arthur Grey of 
Wilton, the Artegall of Spenfers poem. 

Previoufly to thefe events, the affairs of Ireland 
had bred another trouble, which brought lafting 
forrow to Philip. He was affianced to Lady 
Penelope Devereux, daughter of Walter, Earl of 
EfTex, before he went as Ambaffador to Vienna. 
Probably the match was on both fides contracted 
by the parents without reference to the perfons 
chiefly concerned ; for Penelope was almoft a 
child, and Philip did not entertain at that time 
any ftrong affection for her. In September, 1576, 
the Earl of EfTex died. In his laft, illnefs he 
fpoke much of Philip Sidney, who hurried to 
Dublin to fee him, but too late.-f His death was 
fudden ; and a rumour arofe that he had been 
poifoned by Leicefter. Sir Henry Sidney caufed 
an inquiry to be made, which led to no con- 
clufive refult. Effex's death was caufed, without 
doubt, by Leicefter's double dealing ; though it 
may be queftioned whether he was guilty of the 



* Moore: Hifloiy of Ireland. 
f State Papers, MS. vol. clix. 



Sir Philip Sidney. ji 

odious charge which was generally whifpered, 
and confirmed in popular opinion by his fecret 
marriage with EfTex's widow foon afterwards. 
The deceafed earl was a devout Chriftian, a gallant 
foldier, and exemplary in every relation of life. 
His difpofition was of that guilelefs kind which is 
goaded into fury by craft in others ; and he had 
been rendered miferable by Leicester both in his 
own home and in his Irim campaigns. It had been 
the wifh of his heart that his daughter Penelope 
mould marry Philip Sidney, whom he took plea- 
fure in calling, by anticipation, his fon. Whether 
for political or for perfonal reafons, Sir Henry 
cooled towards the project ; and after EfTex's 
death mowed fome difpofition to break it off: 
but he feems to have been hindered by the high 
refpect in which all men held the memory of 
EfTex. When Philip returned from Holland, in 
1577, Penelope Devereux was growing into 
womanhood. Soon he began to difcover in her 
every grace of mind and perfon. She was by 
common confent very lovely and witty ; of a 
character not unlike her brother Robert's, fubject 
to noble impulfes of affection and generofity, 
but unliable. The end of her life, equally with 
his, though in a different way, was fad and fhame- 
ful. In her youth, however, me feems to have 



72 The Life of 

been worthy of Sidney's love. Gradually his ad- 
miration for her grew to a paflionate affection. 
In his own words : — 

" Not at firft fight, nor with a dribbed fhot, 
Love gave the wound which, while I breathe, will bleed ; 
Bat known worth did in mine of time proceed, 
Till by degrees it had full conqueft got."* 

But now various obftacles interpofed, and he 
bitterly regretted his loft opportunity : — 

" I might, unhappy word ! O me ! I might, 
And then would not, or could not, fee my blifs." f 

His profpects were blighted by the birth of a 
fon to Leicefter in 1579. At a tilt foon after- 
wards Philip changed the motto upon his fhield, 
Spero, to Speraviy crofTed out. For he was no 
longer his uncle's heir ; and Lady Leicefter, a 
felfifh and vulgar-minded woman, defired a more 
ambitious match for Penelope than a mere efquire. 
Befides, the Sidneys were not rich. Their princely 
ftate and liberality had kept their fortune fo low 
that Sir Henry was reduced to afk Leicefter for 
2000 crowns as a portion for his daughter Mary. 
Lady Penelope was, however, ftill young, and 
remained unmarried for two years more. Her 

* Sonnet II. f Sonnet XXXIII. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 73 

refidence at Leicefter Houfe brought her into 
intimate familiarity with Philip, and he perfifted 
in cherifhing his love with an ardour which was 
to fharpen his future defpair. 

It is ftrange that Shakefpeare's editors have 
overlooked the parallel between the plot of 
Hamlet and the circumftances which were affo- 
ciated by popular fufpicion with the death of 
EfFex. Sidney's likenefs has more than once been 
traced in the words of Ophelia : — 

" The courtier's, fcholar's, foldier's, eye, tongue, fword, 
The expectancy and rofe of the fair ftate, 
The glafs of falhion, and the mould of form, 
The obferved of all obfervers." 

A clofer analogy between Sidney and the Prince 
of Denmark feems to have been unfufpe&ed. Yet 
we have before us, in the preceding incidents, the 
very outline of Hamlet, and originals of the chief 
characters. The beginning of Sidney's griefs was 
the death of his adopted father under the fufpicion 
of poifon adminiftered by his uncle, who married 
the widow with indecent hafle, fimilar to that 
which is defcribed in the play : — 

" The funeral baked meats 
Did coldly furnifh forth the marriage tables.'' 

Both Shakefpeare and his audience would cer- 



74 "The Life of 

tainly be reminded of fo notorious a fcandal by 
the old Danifh tale which he chofe for the founda- 
tion of his tragedy. The earlier!: notices of a play 
of Hamlet occur about the time of Leicefter's 
death, and within a few years of the appearance 
of the libel which has chiefly given publicity to 
this charge againrr. him. Sidney, it is true, had 
no doubt of his uncle's innocence. The parallel 
cannot be preffed into detail without confounding 
the effential differences of poetry and hiftory ; 
though feveral curious counterparts may be ob- 
ferved, efpecially Horatio and Languet. But 
Sidney's writings certainly exhibit a phafe of 
brooding irrefolution in his life. This transient 
phafe Shakefpeare feems to have caught, and elabo- 
rated into the moft. profound and finifhed of all 
types of character, ufing fuch incidents as would 
beft develope his own idea. The conjecture will 
not appear extravagant if Hamlet be confidered 
in his brighter afpedls, not only as diftracted with 
melancholy, but as the accomplished fwordfman, 
the patron and critic of the players, the brilliant 
wit, the gallant champion, made prifoner alone 
through his forwardnefs.* Sidney's felf-reproach 
is thoroughly in Hamlet's {train : — 

* It has been fuppofed, not without probability, that the 
famous allegorical fpeech of Oberon, in " Midfummer Night's 



Sir Philip Sidney. 75 

" My youth doth wafte, my knowledge brings forth toys, 
My wit doth flrive thofe paffions to defend 
Which for reward fpoil it with vain annoys. 
I fee, my courfe to lofe myfelf doth bend ; 
I fee, and yet no greater forrow take 
Than that I lofe no more for Stella's fake." * 

While he was thus abforbed in his own affec- 
tion the expected marriage of the Queen became 
a matter of anxiety to the whole nation. Nume- 
rous fuitors had been propofed for Elizabeth ; 
among whom Sidney's friend, Prince Cafimir, 
offered himfelf, with flight hope of fuccefs. He 
came, notwithstanding, to England in Jan. 1579, 
and brought in his fuite Languet, who undertook 
the journey for the purpofe of feeing Sidney once 
more, and was rejoiced to hear his praifes from 
the Queen's own lips. Some difappointment, 
however, mingled with Languet's pleafure : he 
would rather have feen Sidney fighting in the 
ranks of the Proteftant heroes on the Continent. 
£C It was a delight to me laft winter," he wrote, 
" to fee you high in favour and enjoying the 
efteem of all your countrymen ; but, to fpeak 
plainly, the habits of your Court feemed to me 
fomewhat lefs manly than I could have wifhed ; 
and moft of your noblemen appeared to me to 

Dream," has a covert allufion to Leiceiler's marriage with 
Lady Eflex. See Craik's Romance of the Peerage, i. 74. 
* Sonnet XVIII. 



j6 The Life of 

feek for a reputation more by a kind of affected 
courtefy than by thofe virtues which are whole- 
fome to the State, and which are moft becoming 
to generous fpirits, and to men of high birth. I 
was forry, therefore, and fo were other friends of 
yours, to fee you wafting the flower of your life 
on fuch things ; and I feared left that noble na- 
ture of yours fhould be dulled." Sidney was 
aroufed by the project of an alliance between 
Elizabeth and Francis Duke of Anjou, which 
had been in treaty for many years, and now was 
afTuming the form of an engagement. Public 
and private motives confpired to recommend this 
marriage to the Queen, and Burleigh, after a 
careful balance of oppofing arguments, decided 
in its favour. The policy of an union between 
England and France, to counteract the over- 
whelming power of Spain, was very apparent. 
In France there was good reafon to believe that 
the great faction of the League was in corre- 
fpondence with Philip II, whofe earneft defire to 
regain the kingdom of England, by any means, 
was well known. The war in the Netherlands 
afforded moft alarming proofs of the fkill of his 
generals, and of the courage and difcipline of his 
army ; while their fuccefs was likely to encourage 
them to greater enterprifes. 



Sir Philip Sidney-. jj 

Hence Elizabeth had been fearful of breaking 
with France. She had forborne to refent the 
perfecution of the Huguenots, and even the great 
crime of St. Bartholomew's day did not interrupt 
the alliance ; though many of her ftatefmen, and 
Sidney among them, advocated a bolder policy. 
He often faid that cc our true-hearted nefs to the 
Reformed Religion brought peace, and fafety, and 
freedom to us." Temporifing, he faid, was falfe 
both to God and man, and likely to be forfaken 
of both. But the Queen liftened more willingly 
to the counfellors who, like Burleigh, recom- 
mended caution. There was no prince then un- 
married whofe alliance gave fo much promife of 
defence againft Philip of Spain as Anjou. Not 
only was he brother to the King of France, but 
in 1578 he was invited by the revolted Provinces 
of the Netherlands to bring a French army to 
their defence. In cafe of his fuccefs, Elizabeth 
had to provide for the fecurity of Englifh and 
Proteftant interefts. To Anjou, on the other 
hand, it was ftill more important to gain the co- 
operation of England in his enterprife. 

Perfonally, alfo, the Queen was inclined to- 
wards the marriage. The French prince, though 
ill-made and plain-featured, was not unattractive. 
He was proficient in his national art of flattering 



78 The Life of 

without feeming to flatter ; and Elizabeth was at 
this time more than ufually fenfible of her lonely 
ftate, being deeply offended with Leicefter. His 
fecret marriage, difcovered to her by the French 
AmbafTador, if the common ftory may be believed, 
made her fo angry that me threatened to fend him 
to the Tower. She was not only indignant at 
the fcandal, but jealous ; for, though fhe did not 
herfelf choofe to marry him, fhe was willing to 
receive from him the homage of a fuitor, and his 
exclufive devotion gratified her. The wife whom 
Leicefter had chofen was obnoxious to her, with 
good reafon ; and though fhe foon reftored him 
to favour, and fanctioned by her prefence the 
public celebration of his wedding, # fhe could no 
longer rely on him with the fame confidence as 
before. It is probable that this incident difpofed 
her to accept an offer of marriage from Anjou. 
Leicefter, as was natural, oppofed the project ve- 
hemently. The Englifh people in general dis- 
liked it ; but it was perilous to exprefs an opinion 
contrary to the Queen's will. Stubbs, a barrifter, 
who wrote a pamphlet entitled, cc The Gulph in 
which England will be fwallowed by the French 
Marriage/' was condemned to lofe his right hand : 

* Sept. 1578. Nicholls: Progreffes. 



Sir Philip Sidney. yg 

a fentence which he bore with memorable forti- 
tude, waving his cap with the other, and crying, 
cc Long live Queen Befs !" Neverthelefs, Sidney 
ventured to lay before the Queen with great 
plainnefs the dangers which the marriage threat- 
ened to herfelf and to her people. Having al- 
ready declared his opinion to Elizabeth by word 
of mouth, he addreffed to her, in the winter of 
1579,* a letter, remarkable for its courage, and 
no lefs for its wifdom and eloquence. His au- 
dacity was justified to his own confcience by his 
being urged to this ftep by cc fome whom he was 
bound to obey," as he informed Languet; but he 
took the whole refponfibility upon himfelf. 

This famous letter is addrefTed, cc Moft feared 
and beloved, moft fweet and gracious Sovereign ;" 
and he enters without apology upon his fubject : 
cc Carrying no other olive branch of interceffion 
than the laying of myfelf at your feet, .... I 
will, in Ample and direct terms, (as hoping they 
fhall only come to your merciful eyes,) fet down 
the overflowing of my mind in this moft im- 
portant matter, importing, as I think, the con- 



* Commonly dated 1580; but Langtiet's correfpondence 
fhows it mull have been written before the beginning of the 
year. 



80 The Life of 

tinuance of your fafety ; and, as I know, the joys 
of my life." 

England, he faid, was divided into two great 
parties. The Proteftants, to whom me had granted 
the free exercife of the eternal truth, and who 
were her chief, if not her fole ftrength, would be 
galled to fee her cc take for a hufband a Frenchman 
and Papift, in whom the very common people 
well know this, that he is the fon of the Jezebel 
of our age ;" and himfelf, no lefs than his brother, 
a treacherous perfecutor of the Huguenots. The 
other party, the Papifts, he defcribes as malcon- 
tent, doubtful of Elizabeths title to the throne, 
numerous, rich, united, and wanting only a head, 
which they would have in Anjou. Of the Prince's 
ambition and ficklenefs Sidney fpeaks with little 
referve, giving reafons for apprehenfion that he 
might bring French troops into England, and re- 
minding the Queen of cc his inconftant temper 
towards his brother, his thrufting himfelf into 
the Low Country matters, his fometimes feeking 
the King of Spain's daughter, fometimes your 
Majefty ." Glancing at the bad faith of the family., 
he fays, cc I will temper my fpeeches from any 
other unreverend difgracings of him, (though 
they might be never fo true)." Yet a little fur- 
ther on he contrafts him thus with Elizabeth, as 



Sir Philip Sidney. 81 

ill-matched together — "he embracing all ambi- 
tious hopes, having Alexander's image in his head, 
but perhaps ill-painted : your Majefty, with ex- 
cellent virtue, taught what you mould hope ; and 
by no lefs wifdom, what you may hope." 

cc Often," he urges, " have I heard you with 
proteftation fay, that no private pleafure nor 
felf- affection could lead you to it ;". and he com- 
bats her alleged motives : the fear of ftanding 
alone in refpect of foreign dealings, and contempt 
in thofe from whom me mould have refpect. 
Denying that me fuffers any injury from thefe 
caufes, he reminds her how odious her fitter 
Mary's marriage with a ftranger had been to the 
people, and concludes his argument thus : — cc For 
your ftanding alone, you muff take it for a lingular 
honour God hath done you, to be indeed the only 
protector of His Church. Againft contempt, if there 
be any, which I will never believe ; let your ex- 
cellent virtues of piety, juftice, and liberality, 
daily, if it be poffible, more and more mine." 
cc Not to be evil fpoken of, neither ChrirVs holi- 
nefs nor Caefar's might could ever prevent or 
warrant ; there being for that no other rule than 
fo to do as they may not juftly fay evil of you." 

The effects of this letter did not appear imme- 
diately. For three years the marriage continued 

G 



82 The Life of 

to be impending, though the Queen was even- 
tually perfuaded to break off the engagement. 
Her prolonged hesitation is afcribed in part to 
Sidney's remon Frances, which fhe pondered often 
and anxioufly. She forgave the boldnefs of fpeech 
which he had ufed ; but his opinions brought to 
him fome lofs of favour. Contrary to his own 
intention, the letter became known,* which dif- 
pleafed the Queen, and incenfed again ft him the 
party which was inclined to the French alliance. 
Of this party the Earl of Oxford was one of 
the moft influential. He had married Lord Bur- 
leigh's daughter Anne, the fame who in her child- 
hood had been contracted to Sidney. He de- 
lighted the Queen by his accomplifhments, and 
ftill more by his prefents of embroidered gloves, 
and other new inventions which he brought from 
Italy. His affectation of foreign manners made 
him an object of popular ridicule ; but his talents 
were various and brilliant. He received from 
Elizabeth the prize at a tournament about this 
time, when Sidney was one of the four challengers 
with him. As a poet he had a reputation which 
lives to the prefent day, and the lateft anthologies 
include fome of his verfes. His ability as a ftatef- 

* Languet's Correfp. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 83 

man was alfo considerable. To thefe qualifica- 
tions he added a family name among the nobleft 
in Europe, high rank, and a rich eftate which he 
had not yet fpent. His morals, however, were 
bad, and his temper overbearing. Sidney, about 
the time that his letter was written, was playing 
tennis in the court of the palace, when Oxford 
entered, and infolently bade him make room 
for him ; on which Sidney anfwered, that, " if 
his lordfhip had been pleafed to exprefs defire in 
milder characters, perchance he might have led 
out thofe that he mould find would not be driven 
out." The Earl retorted by calling Sidney a 
puppy. Unfortunately the French ambafTadors 
had audience that day, and being in the private 
galleries which overlooked the tennis-court of 
Whitehall, prefTed to the windows to fee and enjoy 
the quarrel. Sidney, obferving this, and feeling 
himfelf to be in the prefence of many enemies, 
grew warmer, and demanded of the Earl in a loud 
voice what he had faid ; Oxford thereupon re- 
peated the infult, and Sidney rejoined by giving 
him the lie direct, which was not to be miftaken 
by the punctilious as a provocation to a duel. 
With a few more angry words, Sidney quitted 
the tennis-court, unwilling to make the Queen's 
palace the fcene of a brawl, or to lower the dig- 



84 The Life of 

nity of his nation in the prefence of foreigners. 
His departure was mifconftrued by the Earl, who 
proceeded to his game, with little advantage, as 
was thought, to his reputation. Having waited 
in fufpenfe for a day, expecting a challenge from 
Oxford, Sidney fent a friend cc to awake him out 
of his trance."* 

A duel had not yet loft its ancient figniflcance 
as analogous in nature to a court of juftice. 
Thus Sidney, a few years afterwards, defied the 
anonymous libeller of his uncle ; offering to 
cc prove upon" his body the untruth of his charges. 
There was probably no one in Queen Elizabeth's 
Court who would have fcrupled to give or accept 
a challenge, or queftion the morality of duelling 
any more than that of war. Inafmuch as Sidney 
was high-principled and thoughtful beyond others, 
he deferves fome meafure of blame for complying 
with an unchriftian fafhion. But it is never fair 
to cenfure. a man by the ftandard of a later age. 
There is a flow and fitful progrefs in the morals 
of the world, and when we look back through 
hiflory to the names which are affociated with 
mofr. eminent virtue, we find their excellence de- 
pending mainly upon greatnefs or purity of heart, 

* Brooke. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 85 

not on exemption from the common faults of their 
contemporaries. Languet wrote to Sidney, " I 
am aware that by a habit inveterate in all Chriften- 
dom a gentleman is difgraced if he does not refent 
fuch an infult, but ftill I think you were unfor- 
tunate to be drawn into this contention, though 
I fee that no blame is to be attached to you for 
it."* He considered, however, that Sidney went 
further than he ought, after retorting the infult 
offered to him by giving the lie, in being the 
challenger.f Prince Cafimir fent word to Sidney, 
exprerling his fympathy and his willingnefs to 
arTift him. Sidney himfelf wrote to Hatton : — 
cc As for the matter depending between the Earl 
of Oxford and me, certainly, fir, howfoever I 
might have forgiven him, I mould never have 
forgiven myfelf, if I had lain under fo proud an 
injury as he would have laid upon me ; neither 
can anything under the fun make me repent it, 
nor any mifery make me go one half word back 
from it. Let him, therefore, as he will, digeft it. 
For my part, I think tying up makes fome things 
feem fiercer than they would be."J 

* Pears' Sidney's Correfp. 

f Lord Hailes' Langueti Epiftoke : a paffage not inferted 
in Pears. 

X Wright's Elizabeth, 11. 101. 



86 The Life of 

Oxford hefitated long between pride and anger : 
thinking it beneath his dignity to fight a duel 
with a commoner ; and fo much time elapfed that 
the Lords of the Council interfered and tried to 
make peace. Failing in their attempts, they ap- 
pealed to the Queen, who undertook to fettle the 
matter herfelf. She accordingly fent for Sidney, 
and laid before him cc the difference in degree 
between earls and gentlemen, the refpect infe- 
riors owed to their fuperiors, and the neceffity in 
princes to maintain their own creations, as the 
degrees defcending between the people's licen- 
tioufnefs and the anointed fovereignty of crowns ; 
how the gentleman's neglect of the nobility taught 
the peafant to infult upon both." 

Sidney replied firmly, vindicating himfelf by 
arguments, the independence of which was foft- 
ened by characteristic grace in the manner of 
{rating them. cc That place was never intended 
for privilege to wrong," he urged from her own 
example ; who, as he faid, cc how fovereign foever 
me were by throne, birth, education, and nature, 
yet was ihe content to carl her own affections 
into the fame mould as her fubjects did, and to 
govern by their laws." He befought Elizabeth 
to remember that Oxford, cc though a great lord, 
was no lord over him ; and therefore the diffe- 



Sir Philip Sidney, 87 

rence of degrees among freemen could not chal lenge 
any other homage than precedency." He alfo 
appealed to her prudence, inftancing the policy of 
her father Henry VIII, who thought it wife by 
upholding the gentry to guard the throne againft 
the ambition of the grandees. 

It was afterwards ftated that Oxford fent Ra- 
leigh and another gentleman to Sidney, proposing 
an honourable agreement, that Sidney had ac- 
ceded, but that Oxford's overtures were a cloak 
for a plot to murder Sidney in his bed. This 
accufation proceeds apparently from a bitter ene- 
my of the Earl.* 

Shortly after this, Sidney retired for a time 
from the Court. This ftep has been afcribed to 
his unwillingnefs to make an apology for a wrong 
in which he was the injured party. But it ap- 
pears from Languet's correfpondence that he was 
chiefly induced to withdraw himfelf by the pre- 
vailing influence of Anjou and the French faction. 
Cf I admire your courage," Languet writes, Jan. 
30, 1 5 80 - 3 but at the fame time he cautions Sidney 
againft going too far in incurring unpopularity, 
and againft being angry becaufe the advice which 



* State Papers, vol. cli: Depositions of Lord Henry How- 
ard and Charles Arundel, MS. 1581. 



88 



The Life of 



he gave was not received as it deferved. But 
Sidney was greatly difappointed at the ftate of 
public affairs, and quitted the Court for Wilton, 
the feat of his dearly loved fitter, the Countefs of 
Pembroke. 




Sir Philip Sidney. 89 




Chapter IV. 



ARCADIA 




" I love to cope him in thefe fallen fits, 
For then he's full of matter." 

As You Like It. 

OR fome time before Sidney left the 
Court he had begun to figh for a 
purer life than he found there. Among 
his earlieft efTays in verfe is a tranfla- 
tion of Horace's Ode in praife of an intermediate 
courfe between ambition and bafenefs : — 

" The golden mean who loves, lives fafely free . . . 
Releafed from Court, where envy needs mull be." 

The laft line, expreffing with added energy the 
fenfe of the original, mows the temper of his own 
mind. His thoughts turned towards the country, 
and contrafted with a penfive fancy the fimple 
ways of nature with the perverfenefs of the 
world of fafhion. cc O fweet confolation !" he 



90 The Life of 

writes, cc to fee the long life of the hurtlefs trees ! 
to fee how in ftraight growing up, though never 
fo high, they hinder not their fellows ! They 
only envioufly trouble, which are crookedly bent." 
A little poem of his, entitled, cc Difpraife of a 
Courtly Life," defcribes himfelf in the character 
of a fhepherd, lamenting his change to the rtate 
of a courtier: — 

" Well was I, while under fhade 
Oaten reeds me mufic made, 
Striving with my mates in fong, 
Mixing mirth our fongs among ; 
Greater was the fhepherd's treafure, 
Than this falfe, fine, courtly pleafure. 
****** 
My old mates I grieve to fee, 
Void of me in field to be, 
Where we once our lovely fheep, 
Lovingly, like friends did keep ; 
Oft each other's friendship proving, 
Never ftriving, but in loving." 

Among his numerous friends he fingles two, 
who had not difappointed him, and whom he en- 
treated to make with himfelf" one mind in bodies 
three:"— 

" Only for my two loves' fake, 
In whofe love I pleafure take ; 
Only two do me delight 
With their ever-pleafing fight." 



Sir Philip Sidney, 91 

Thefe were Fulke Greville and Edward Dyer, 
both of them poets, to whom Sidney afterwards 
bequeathed the whole of his books. 

His hopeful and imaginative mind had formed 
much too fair an idea of the world, and he was 
difgufted in proportion with the reality ; yet he 
permitted in cherifhing the conception of a ftate, in 
fome other place and period, in which the virtues 
flourifhed which he had not found in England or 
in Italy. During the leifure which he enjoyed in 
his retirement at Wilton he amufed himfelf by 
delineating his ideal ftate, a kingdom where every 
knightly excellence flourifhed in combination with 
the unfophifticated manners of a rural life. The 
place which he felecled was Arcadia, in the re- 
mote times of the MefTenian wars ; and as his 
fiction was written down for the pleafure of his 
After, he called it the Countefs of Pembroke's 
Arcadia. In a letter to her he compares it to a 
fpider's web, fit only to be fwept away : the fruit 
" of a young head full of fancies, and not fo well 
ftayed as I would it were, and fhalt be when God 
will. It is done for you," he fays, "only for 
you ; not for feverer eyes, being only a trifle, 
and triflingly handled. Your dear felf can beft 
witnefs the manner, being done on loofe ftieets of 
paper, moftly in your prefence : the reft by fheets 



92 The Life of 

fent unto you as faft as they were done." The 
earlier and more finimed part was written in the 
Earl of Pembroke's (lately manfion of Wilton, 
then newly built from the defigns of Holbein. 
A fire and many alterations have left only a fmall 
portion of the original houfe {landing ; and fome 
paintings from the Arcadia, with which one of the 
apartments was adorned, have long been oblite- 
rated. But in the park there is ftill an ilex under 
which Sidney may have fat, as he is depicted in 
Ifaac Oliver's portrait, mufing with folded arms. 
There, before his eyes, rofe the glory of Englifh 
cathedrals, the unrivalled fpire of Salifbury; and 
fometimes in riding over Salifbury plain he would 
roam among the huge blocks of Stonehenge, won- 
der who had piled them, and compare them to the 
fhapelefs fancies which encumbered his mind. 
John Aubrey, whofe great-uncle had feen Sir Philip, 
defcribes him as taking a pocket-book with him 
in his rides, and often paufing to fet down thoughts 
which ftruck him.* His delight in a country life 
feems rather to have been fuch a tafte as town- 
bred men are wont to have, than the mere love 
of rural fports and fcenes for their own fake. 
Natural beauty was chiefly delightful to him as 

,■,"..* Gray. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 93 

an image of moral beauty ; and his mind reverted 
continually from meadows and trees to human in- 
terefts. He defcribes his Arcadians as cc a happy 
people, wanting little, becaufe they defire not 
much;" yet their difcourfe is almoft entirely of 
things which belong to civil life, and that of a 
refined kind ; of kingdoms, wars, tournaments ; 
of courtly paftimes and fentimental love. Whether 
fuch a ftate be poffible, as he imagines, with all that 
is pure in ruftic innocence, and all that is noble in 
political virtue, or graceful in art and knowledge, 
may well be doubted ; but the contemplation of 
fuch a ftate is at leaft a beautiful dream. 

A ftrriilar idea had • been conceived previoufly 
by Spanim and Italian authors ; and Sidney had 
read both the Diana of Montemayor and the 
Arcadia of Sannazzaro. Of the former, indeed, 
he tranilated fome portions. But the hints which 
he certainly borrowed from thofe once popular 
romances he has worked out in a manner of his 
own, and his work is diftinguifhed by his peculiar 
refiectivenefs. At the prefent day few would 
think of Sidney's Arcadia otherwife than as a 
tedious book. Fafhions change in ficlion almoft 
as much as in drefs, fo that what was the admira- 
tion of one age appears to another the height of 
abfurdity and deformity. Only thofe poems en- 



94 The Life of 

dure in frefhnefs which render a true image of the 
eternal properties of nature, and more efpecially 
of the human foul. Many other compositions 
little inferior in genius have become antiquated, 
becaufe they have been loaded with conceits pecu- 
liar to one age. 

The mixture of adventurous chivalry and feudal 
courtefy with affected worfhip of the gods of Greece, 
in which Sidney's profe-poem abounds, paffed 
during a fhort time for the union of all perfections. 
As long as the tafte prevailed of blending claflical 
and mediaeval ideas, no book was more admired. 
Thirteen editions were printed in lefs than a 
century, a number which was not attained even 
by Lyly's popular Euphues ; and it was thought 
worth while to caution young wives againft waft- 
ing their time over the Arcadia to the neglect of 
their houfehold duties. But both of the two 
elements which contributed moll to its popularity 
have grown out of date. The fpirit of chivalry 
faded away from England in the fecond genera- 
tion after Sidney, and has only of late years been 
reftored to literature in an hiftorical form, chiefly 
as a contraft to modern democracy. The imagery 
of ancient gods and goddeffes paffed more gradu- 
ally out of fafhion. In the Sixteenth century it 
was in the bloom of frefhnefs, and was far from 



Sir Philip Sidney, 95 

being really fo profane as it might feem. For a 
great change of mind took place at the revival of 
learning and art in reference to the ancient my- 
thologies. The primitive Chriftians had regarded 
the heathen Pantheon as a Pandemonium. The 
gods of Greece and Rome were to them evil fpirits, 
devils who refitted Chrift and deceived his people. 
Far otherwife did they appear to the great fcholars 
who after a thoufand years difinterred the old 
claffical world : for them the fame deities, {tripped 
of their religious awe and antagonifm to the Chrif- 
tian faith, had only their firft and pureft attributes. 
Formerly they had been identified with the rebel 
angels; now they feemed like angels who had never 
rebelled. Pan, the god of Nature, Pallas, the 
goddefs of Wifdom, Diana, the goddefs of Chaftity, 
and the reft, were conceived as fo many minifter- 
ing fpirits attending upon thofe feveral depart- 
ments of God's kingdom. In this fuperftition, as 
in the faint-worfhip to which it fucceeded, there 
lurked, without doubt, the germ of idolatry, which 
in the next century degenerated into a mere orna- 
ment of irreligion. But in its origin it was pro- 
moted by a defire to claim for Jehovah fupreme 
dominion over all things vifible and invifible ; 
and it was fuftained by a reverent wiih to avoid 
the familiar ufe of His Name. 



g6 The Life of 

One inftance will mow how much earneftnefs 
there was in this incongruous mixture of deities. 
A princefs in the Arcadia is reprefented as utter- 
ing in prifon a prayer, which is quoted at length. 
This prayer was ufed at Carifbrook by Charles I, 
and given by him to Juxon at his death. It is 
printed in " Eikon Bafilike," under the title of 
cc A Prayer in Time of Captivity." Milton, in 
his pamphlet <c Iconoclaftes," rebukes the king 
fharply for adopting the prayer, both as being a 
plagiarifm from Sir Philip Sidney, and as a heathen 
prayer. Yet it is impoffible to read it without 
acknowledging its appropriatenefs to the circum- 
ftances of Charles ; and his ufe of it, rather than 
a fault in him, is an honour to Sidney, who has 
imbued a pagan romance with fo Christian a fpirit. # 
On the whole, however, Milton's character of the 
Arcadia, though too fevere, is not far from a juft 
eftimate. He calls it, in the fame paflage to which 
reference has been made, " a vain amatorious 
poem, a book in that kind full of worth and wit; 
but among religious thoughts and duties not 

* The intereft which is attached to this prayer feems a fuffi- 
cient reafon for inferring it at the end of this volume, as Arcadia 
has been long out of print. Milton has been abfurdly accufed 
of procuring the infertion of the prayer in order to fligma- 
tize it. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 97 

worthy to be named, nor to be read at any time 
without good caution." Sidney himfelf, when on 
his deathbed, wifhed it to be deftroyed. Like 
other compofitions of the fame kind, it is replete 
with the worfhip of youth, beauty, and martial 
excellence. In magnifying the qualities of heroes 
and heroines, many voluptuous and fanguinary 
pictures are drawn, which are not altogether re- 
deemed by their aflbciation with high fentiments 
and examples. Yet the glowing fancies of fuch 
men as Sidney have fometimes a wholefome in-" 
fluence to which ethical treatifes never attain. 
Reaching minds which from felf-indulgence have 
come to loathe other teaching, they excite an ad- 
miration for manly virtues which are equally 
valuable as a preparation and as a fupplement to 
higher Chriftian graces. The following fenten- 
tious extracts would perhaps be of little value, if 
they were thrufl into a frivolous book in order to 
give it a mere colour of gravity. Some may 
eafily be referred to claflical fources ; others are 
trite with fubfequent ufe : yet they deferve notice 
as they flow out of the courfe of the romance, and 
reprefent fairly the fpirit in which it is conceived: — 

" Wifdom and virtue are. the only deftinies 
appointed to man to follow. " 

H 



98 The Life of 

" There is no man fuddenly either excellently 
good or extremely evil, but grows either as he 
holds himfelf up in virtue, or lets himfelf Aide to 
vicioufnefs." 

cc True love hath that excellent nature in it, 
that it doth transform the very eflence of the 
lover into the thing loved •, uniting and as it were 
incorporating it with a fecret and inward working. 
And herein do other kinds of loves imitate the 
excellent ; for as the love of heaven makes one 
heavenly, the love of virtue virtuous ; fo doth 
the love of the world make one become worldly, 
and the effeminate love of a woman doth womanize 
a man." 

cc They are never alone who are accompanied 
with noble thoughts." 

" Who moots at the midday fun, though he be 
fure he mail never hit the mark; yet as fure he is, 
he mail moot higher than who aims but at a bum." 

cc High honour is not only gotten and born 
with pain and danger, but muft be nurfed with 
the like, or elfe vanifheth as foon as it appears to 
the world." 

" If we will be men, the reafonable part of our 
foul is to have abfolute commandment ; againft 
which if any fenfual weaknefs arife, we are to yield 
all our found forces to the overthrowing of fo 



Sir Philip Sidney. 99 

unnatural a rebellion. To fay ' I cannot/ is 
childifh; and C I will not/ womanifh." 

" I am no herald to inquire of men's pedigrees; 
it fufficeth me if I know their virtues." 

" In nothing had nature done fo much for them, 
as that it had made them Lords of Truth, whereon 
all other goods are builded." 

A fimilar dignity of mind appears in the con- 
duct of the ftory. One rarely finds, in the fictions 
of any period, more truly noble and generous 
characters than thofe of the two princes and two 
princefTes whofe adventures form the chief part of 
this romance. Every act and thought of theirs 
is pervaded by the fame lofty tone. That ihame 
is worfe than death, that floth is worfe than pain- 
ful wounds, that felfifhnefs is hateful, friendship 
lovely, courtefy manly, and rudenefs brutifh ; fuch 
is the {train of honour implied throughout the 
Arcadia. The extravagance with which it is car- 
ried out goes, it is true, beyond nature and pro- 
priety. Neverthelefs, this romantic fpirit is per- 
haps more faithful to the beft qualities of huma- 
nity, than that of any clafs of fiction which has 
followed until a very recent time. Comparing 
the Arcadia with the moft celebrated poems in 
profe and verfe which may be referred to the 



i oo The Life of 

fame ftandard, it exhibits a fingular delight in 
portraying virtue. Even Scott is lefs confpicu- 
oufly marked by this characteristic. To exhibit 
goodnefs by means of an elaborate contraft with its 
oppofite is the plan of one great fchool of fiction, 
of which Clarifia may be named as the type. 
Another prefers to trace the features of moral 
excellence in the midft of outward circumftances 
which are mean and repulfive. A third fchool 
aims at reprefenting the lights and mades of 
human life and character with the impartial truth 
of a photograph. While each of thefe methods 
has its own peculiar worth, Sidney's has the air of 
frefhnefsand hopefulnefs which diftinguimes youth 
from age. He may be confidered as happy in 
living at a time when the crudenefs of art was 
compenfated by the new afpect which all things 
wore ; when juft fentiments had not yet come 
by reiteration to pafs for truifms, nor ideal cha- 
racters to feem imaginary. There are, however, 
in the Arcadia blemifhes which have been already 
noticed ; and there are faults of compofition which 
would be intolerable in a modern novel. The 
ftory, though ingenioufly conftructed, is involved, 
and bears traces of the curfory manner in which it 
was written. The incidents from firft to laft are 
fo improbable, to ufe no ftronger term, that the 



Sir Philip Sidney. 101 

reader is perfuaded to follow them with intereft 
only by the charm of Sidney's thoughts and lan- 
guage; and the great length at which every par- 
ticular is related appears exceflive, after making 
large allowance for varieties of tafte in this 
refpecl. 

The main fubject of the romance is the court- 
fhip of the two difguifed princefTes, Pamela and 
Philoclea, by the two princes Mufidorus and 
Pyrocles, alfo difguifed. This plot is interwoven 
with many epifodes, one of which is the original 
of the flory of Glofter in King Lear. Perhaps 
the moft pleafing of all is the epifode of Argalus 
and Parthenia, which has been more than once 
published feparately, and is ftill fold in a cheap 
form by hawkers. Argalus loves Parthenia, and 
is loved in return. His difappointed rival finds 
an opportunity to rub her face with corrofive 
poifon, which deftroys her beauty beyond all hope 
of recovery. The love of Argalus for her remains 
unaltered, but me refufes to difgrace him in the 
eyes of the world by becoming his wife, and 
fecretly efcapes to Corinth ; where me is cured 
by the queen's phyfician, and reflored to her 
former lovelinefs. Returning to Argalus fne pre- 
tends to be a friend of Parthenia, and to bear from 
her dying lips a requeft that he mould accept her- 



102 The Life of 

felf as Parthenia's fubftitute. Argalus, though 
greatly perplexed, continues faithful to his firft 
affection, and refufes until, to his joy, Parthenia 
makes herfelf known to him. They are married, 
and live together for a time in perfect: happinefs. 
But war breaks out, and Argalus is fent for by the 
king. 

cc The meffenger made fpeed, and found Ar- 
galus at a caftle of his own, fitting in a parlour 
with the fair Parthenia ; he reading in a book the 
ftories of Hercules, fhe by him, fo as to hear him 
read : but while his eyes looked on the book, fhe 
looked on his eyes, and fometimes flaying him 
with fome pretty queftion ; not fo much to be 
refolved of the doubt, as to give him ocean* on to 
look upon her; a happy couple, he joying in her, 
fhe joying in herfelf; but in herfelf, becaufe fhe 
enjoyed him. Both increafed their riches by 
giving to each other." 

Argalus is wanted to take up the challenge of 
Amphialus, a chivalrous prince whofe love for one 
of the king's daughters has provoked the war. 
They fight, equipped in rich armour, which is 
minutely defcribed, and after a long and terrible 
combat Argalus is killed before Parthenia's eyes. 
Shortly afterwards a ftrange knight arrives in the 
royal camp. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 103 

" He had before him four damfels and fo many 
behind him, all upon palfreys, and all apparelled 
in mourning weeds : each of them a fervant of 
each fide, with like liveries of forrow. Himfelf 
in an armour, all painted over with fuch a cunning 
of fhadow that it reprefented a gaping fepulchre : 
the furniture of his horfe was all of cyprefs branches, 
wherewith in old time they were wont to drefs 

graves The Knight of the Tomb (for fo 

the foldiers termed him) fent to Bafilius to demand 
leave to fend a damfel into the town to call out 
Amphialus." 

Amphialus accepts the ftranger's challenge, 
and having croffed over to the little ifland which 
ferved for lifts, cc defired to fpeak with him ; but 
the Knight of the Tomb, with filence, and draw- 
ing his horfe back, mowed no will to hear nor 
fpeak." At the firft courfe the unknown knight 
miffed his lance-reft ; and Amphialus gallantly let 
his own point pafs over the head of his antagonift. 
Notwithftanding this favour, the courteous Am- 
phialus gains an eafy victory, and feeing how far 
he is the fuperior in arms, would have difmiffed 
his challenger ; but the other provokes him by 
infults into giving an angry blow, which touches 
a vital part. He pulls off the helmet which hid 
the features of the dying knight; about whofe 



104 'The Life of 

fhoulders there fell immediately " the treafure of 
fair golden hair which, with the face, witnefTed 
that it was Parthenia." 

The courfe of the romance leads to incidental 
mention of matters of ftate and fociety, the treat- 
ment of which is remarkable. As often as occa- 
sion arifes they are handled as gravely as if actual 
events were concerned. Queftions of government, 
education, law, and even theology, no lefs than 
building and gardening, are difcufTed with a philo- 
fophical ferioufnefs which gives to the moft fan- 
tastic incidents a certain air of reality. Pamela 
difcourfes in prifon upon the firft principles of 
religious belief and truft in Providence, and her 
prayer has been referred to already. 

A fpecimen, on a fmaller fcale, of Sidney's 
thoughtful manner, is the following defcription 
of hawking : — cc Upon the fide of the foreft they 
had both greyhounds, fpaniels and hounds, whereof 
the firft might feem the lords, the fecond the gen- 
tlemen, the laft the yeomen of dogs. A caft of 
merlins there was befides, which flying of a gallant 
height over certain bufhes would beat the birds 
that rofe down into the bufhes, as falcons will do 
wild fowl over a river. But the fport which for 
that day Bafilius would principally fhow to Zel- 
mane was the mounting at a Heron ; which getting 



Sir Philip Sidney. 105 

up on his waggling wings with pain, till he was 
come to fome height fas though the air next the 
earth were not fit for his great body to fly through), 
was now grown to diminifh the fight of himfelf 
and to give example to great perfons, that the 
higher they be the lefs they mould mow. Then 
a Ger-falcon was caft off after her, who ftraight 
fpying where the prey was, fixing her eye with 
deflre, and guiding her way by her eye, ufed no 
more ftrength than induftry. For as a good 
builder to a high tower will not make his ftair 
upright, but winding almon 1 the full compafs about, 
that the fteepnefs be the more infenflble, fo me, 
feeing the towering of her purfued chafe, went 
circling and compaffing about, riling fo with the 
lefs fenfe of rifing, and yet finding that way fcantly 
ferve the greedinefs of her hafte, as an ambitious 
body will go far out of the direct way to win to 
a point of height which he deflres. So would me 
as it were turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out 
another way, but all was to return to a higher 
pitch ; which once gotten, me would either beat 
with cruel afTaults the heron, who was now driven 
to the beft defence of force, flnce flight would 
not ferve, or elfe clafping with him came down 
together." 

Arcadia not only forms a large part of Sidney's 



106 The Life of 

whole literary works, but reflects his own mind To 
vividly, that the examination of its chief charac- 
teristics is efTential to a complete view of his life. 
Its relation to Sidney is often faid to have been 
ftill more perfonal. He has been fuppofed, though 
with flight probability, to defcribe himfelf and 
Fulke Greville in his princes, and Lady Penelope 
Devereux in his princefs Philoclea. Traditions 
of this kind have ufually little authority, and there 
are marked diverfities in the character of the per- 
fons which might be objected to this one in par- 
ticular. Mufidorus and Pyrocles, Pamela and 
Philoclea, are artificially contrafted together, and 
unlike portraits. Sidney, like any other poet, 
drew his ideas from what he had obferved and 
felt, according to his own maxim, cc Look in thy 
heart and write." Here and there it is poflible to 
trace the origin of his fictions. The disfigure- 
ment of Parthenia was fuggefted without doubt 
by Lady Penelope's fufFering from the fmallpox, 
and her recovering without lofs of beauty. It 
may be conjectured that Elizabeth was in his mind 
when he wrote thus : — <c The Queen of Laconia, 
one that feemed born on the confines of beauty's 
kingdom ; for all her lineaments were neither 
perfect porTerlioners thereof, nor abfolute ftrangers 
thereto; but me was a queen, and therefore beau- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 107 

tiful." But it may well be doubted whether any 
portraiture is intended by Sidney, except that he 
modeftly introduces himfelf as a melancholy young 
fhepherd. The name of Phillifides thinly difguifes 
his own, and by this name fome of his friends 
deplored their lofs when he died. 

The feveral books of Arcadia are concluded 
with verfified dialogues and paftoral fongs, in one 
of which the allufion to Languet, previoufly 
quoted, is made by Phillifides. Thefe eclogues 
are a prominent feature in the Italian Arcadia, but 
Sidney's are often wearifome, and the metres un- 
couth. His aim was to unite the rich fancy of 
Italy with Englifh fimplicity and vigour, but he 
was caught, like the author of Euphues, by fome 
of the affectations which he denounced. He fails 
more fignally in the paffages which were defigned 
to relieve the graver parts with comedy. Humour 
was wanting in fome meafure to complete Sidney's 
almoft univerfal genius. General harmony of 
mind and foul feems in its nature unfavourable 
to the power of humour; which is either the play 
of a carelefs mind, or elfe the reaction of an earned 
mind againft cares too heavy to be borne. The 
latter is the grim humour of fatirifts, who feek 
relief from fad contemplation in irony and mock- 
ery; the former is the more common humour of 



108 The Life of 

light-hearted men, who find entertainment every- 
where. In men of action this faculty is ufually 
weak ; and one who is both earned and hopeful 
is lead of all likely to be a humorift. Deformity, 
whether natural or moral, difpleafes him too much 
to afford him mere amufement ; and his buoyant 
fpirit throws off the depreffion which drains fome 
noble hearts until bitter laughter is the only alter- 
native from bitter tears. Still the want of humour 
muft be regarded as a defect, not only of literary 
power, but of character alfo. It is a gift akin to 
charity of a homely fort, and has its true ufe in 
foftening the repulfivenefs of things from which 
a fine mind would otherwife fhrink with too in- 
tolerant a prejudice. To this faftidioufnefs of 
tafte Sidney appears to have been inclined, though 
it was fubdued by his extreme kindlinefs and 
fympathy. Yet it is not only in wit, but in 
humanity, that Damcetas and Mopfa fuffer by 
comparifon with Touchftone and Audrey. 

Arcadia is brought to a conclufion with much 
eloquence, but the author confefies himfelf to be 
weary of his tafk. According to a statement 
which Ben Jonfon made, forty years afterwards, 
to Drummond, Sidney entertained the idea of 
adapting what he had written to the legends of 
King Arthur. If this plan had been executed, 



Sir Philip Sidney, 109 

his literary fame would have been extended by 
the popularity of the fubject. But a national 
poem could hardly have arifen from fo artificial a 
procefs ; and the want of a noble female character, 
a fatal defect in the romances of the Round Table, 
might have compelled Sidney to alter the whole 
fable, as Spenfer has done in the Faery Queen. 

During Sidney's refidence at Wilton he pro- 
bably wrote his little effay entitled the <c Defence 
of Poefy." We learn from him that the name of 
poet had fallen into contempt in England. This 
opinion was not without excufe; for at the period 
when he wrote the national literature was fcanty 
and feeble, mowing no clear prefage of its magni- 
ficent outburft a few years later. The age which 
is called Elizabethan was only beginning. Though 
Elizabeth had been more than twenty years on 
the throne, the men whofe names have made hers 
illuftrious were, for the moft part, unknown and 
untried. Several had not yet attained to manhood 
in 1580. Burleigh and Walfingham, it is true, 
were at the height of their reputation ; and Lei- 
cester's inglorious fame had reached its zenith. 
But of the array of great men who have fet a 
deep mark on the Englifh character for all time, 
none had appeared as yet. Shakefpeare's age was 
fixteen, Bacon's nineteen, Hooker's, Spenfer's, 



1 1 o The Life of 

and Raleigh's., about twenty-feven, when Sidney, 
in 1580, acknowledged the dearth of Englifh 
literature. The Shepherd's Calendar, the Earl 
of Surrey's Lyrics, and the works of Lord Buck- 
hurft and his aflbciates, were the only pieces which 
he could call to mind as commendable fince 
Chaucer. But he pleaded earneftly againft the 
general inference which was drawn from the 
fcarcity of good poets. Still more earnestly did 
he vindicate poetry againft another objection 
fuggefted by the rifing feci: of the Puritans, 
that poetry is efTentially untrue, immoral, and a 
wafte of time. 

Sidney's "Defence" begins by an appeal to anti- 
quity. He mows that poetry is the moil ancient 
of arts, cc the flrft light-giver to ignorance ; " the 
earlieft teachers, philofophers, and hiftorians being 
poets. He urges the dignity of the Roman and 
Greek names for a poet; the one calling him vates y 
or Prophet, and the other TroiyTnf, or Maker. He 
alfo appeals to Scripture, adducing inftances of 
Divine poetry; in which he includes not only the 
Pfalms of David, but the Parables of our Lord. 
For poetry, he contends, is " a fpeaking picture 
with this end, to teach and delight ; " and there- 
fore not reftricled to the form of verfe. cc It is 
not rhyming and verfing that maketh a poet, (no 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 1 i 

more than a long gown maketh an advocate, who 
though he mould plead in armour mould be an 
advocate, and no foldier,) but it is that feigning 
notable images of virtues, vices, and what elfe ; 
with that delightful teaching which muff be the 
right defcribing note to mark a poet by." 

Proceeding to compare poetry in the abftract 
with philofophy and hiftory, he gives to it the 
preference over both ; on the ground that while 
the two latter teach, by precept and example re- 
fpectively, the knowledge of virtue, poetry moves 
men to the love of virtue, which is both a more 
difficult and a higher art. Admitting and de- 
ploring the abufe of poetry, efpecially by the 
comic dramatifts of his own day, he mows the in- 
juftice of condemning what is good for its abufe, 
and argues that properly the art of poetry is 
neither vicious, falfe, nor effeminate, but the 
contrary. 

This effay of Sidney's may claim to take rank 
among the mod admirable in our language. For 
pure fentiment, found philofophy, and brilliancy 
and grace of ftyle, it is unfurpaffed to this day. 
It is read much lefs than it deferves, partly, per- 
haps, becaufe Englifh poetry has been fufficient 
fince Sidney's time to defend itfelf without an 
advocate. Moreover, his critical remarks on the 



H2 , The Life of 

works of his day have loft their intereft ; and he 
has incurred no fmall blame for cenfuring plays 
which were forerunners of the richeft dramatic 
literature in the world. The recklefs changes of 
time and place, the difcordant mixture of tragedy 
with coarfe buffoonery, and other features of the 
old Englifh drama which Sidney holds up to 
ridicule, were ufed by Shakefpeare's genius and 
fkill as elements of a more exquifite harmony 
than was ever contemplated in the claflical rules 
of unity. Hence Sidney is in fome difcredit as a 
critic ; and yet what Shakefpeare did for tragedy 
and comedy was truly confiftent with the princi- 
ples of Sidney's effay, though the manner of 
execution was different from any which he was 
able to forefee. Like moft admirers of Greek 
and Roman literature, he was led for a time into 
the miftake of imitating the ancient metres; and 
he has been feverely cenfured for trying to diffuade 
Spenfer from the ufe of rhyme.* It is doubtful 
whether there was ever fufficient ground for this 
charge againft Sidney. In the " Defence of 
Poefy" he balances the merits of ancient and 
modern metre, and concludes: — "The latter like- 
wife with his rhyme ftriketh a certain mufic to the 

* Tytler's Life of" Raleigh. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 1 3 

ear ; and in fine, fince it doth delight, though by 
another way, it obtaineth the fame purpofe ; there 
being in either fweetnefs, and wanting in neither 
majefty." On the other hand, Sidney's influence 
in the effential part of poetry was of the beft kind. 
Its amount was immenfe, and extends through 
that time to the prefent. He was the firft Eng- 
lifh critic, and the firft writer of modern Englifh 
profe. He was the nation's idol when the greateft 
Englishmen were about the age which is moft 
fubject to enthufiafm. Spenfer probably planned 
the cc Faery Queen" in his company: Shakefpeare 
probably in youth read the cc Defence of Poefy," 
and learned there to appreciate the worth of his 
own art. Thus, while a long train of poets, from 
Shakefpeare and Spenfer to Tennyfon, have not 
difdained to imitate Sidney's fancies, the indirect 
influence of his pure and heroic mind has pro- 
bably been deeper ftill. 

Sidney's perfonal connection with the dramatifts 
is curious. While he was at Wilton, in 1580, his 
fifter became mother of William Herbert, after- 
wards Earl of Pembroke, <c the moft univerfally 
loved and efteemed of any man " # in the next 
generation, the friend of Shakefpeare, and, in all 



* Clarendon. 

I 



ii4 The Life of 

probability, the "W. H." to whom Shakefpeare's 
Sonnets were dedicated. Ben Jonfon has coupled 
Lord Herbert's name with Sidney's in the line of 
his well-known epitaph on the Countefs, "Sidney's 
fitter, Pembroke's mother." At the fame Wilton 
Houfe Philip Maflinger was born in 1584, and 
received from Sidney his Chriftian name. 

Another work which may be referred to this 
part of his life is a vertton of the Pfalms. He 
began this in conjunction with his accomplifhed 
fitter, and tranflated the firft forty-two himfelf.* 
The remainder were finifhed by her. Sidney's 
Pfalms want the modern fmoothnefs of verifica- 
tion which has become an almoft univerfal art ; 
but they are fuperior to the authorized verfions, 
old and new, both in religious and poetical feel- 
ing. The metres are varied with the fubjects, 
and the true character of the Pfalms as fpiritual 
fongs is forcibly conveyed. For a fpecimen the 
opening of the thirty-feventh Pfalm may be 
quoted : — 

" Fret not thyfelf, if thou do fee 
That wicked men do feem to flourifh, 
Nor envy in thy bofom nourifh 
Though ill deeds well fucceeding be. 

* Singer's Edition : Preface. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 1 5 

" They foon fhall be cut down like grafs, 
And wither like green herb or flower; 
Do well and truft in heavenly power : 
Thou fhalt have both good foot and place." 

From his graver ftudies he refrefhed himfelf by 
the amufement of planning houfes and gardens. 
The Earl of Pembroke's houfe of Houghton near 
Ampthill, now in ruins, was built from his defigns. 
His tafte in thefe matters inclined to fimplicity, 
as appears from his defcription of the houfe of 
Kalander, an Arcadian nobleman, which was 
tf built of fair and ftrong ftones, .... the 
lights, doors, and flairs, rather directed to the ufe 
of the gueft than to the eye of the artificer, and 
yet as the one chiefly needed, fo the other not 

neglected The fervants not fo many 

in number as cleanly in apparel and ferviceable in 
behaviour. The back fide of the houfe neither 
field, garden, nor orchard ; or rather it was both 
field, garden, and orchard ; for as foon as the de- 
fending of the flairs had delivered them down, 
they came into a place cunningly fet with trees of 
the mod: tafte-pleafing fruits : but fcarcely they 
had taken that into their confideration, but they 
were fuddenly ftept into a delicate green ; of each 
fide of the green a thicket, and behind the thickets 
again new beds of flowers, which being under the 



1 1 6 The Life of 

trees, the trees were to them a pavilion, and they 
to the trees a mofaic floor." 

Probably the months which he fpent at Wilton 
or at the Earl's neighbouring manor of Clarendon, 
were the happieft of Sidney's life. His love for 
his After was mutual, and very deep and tender. 
In fubfequent years he often returned to the pur- 
fuits which have been defcribed in this chapter, 
and forgot in them the difappointments, of which 
he had many in the world. Yet his nature was fo 
evenly balanced between contemplation and action 
that he could not bear to be long fecluded from 
either. At Wilton he faw the armour of feveral 
gallant French knights, Montmorenci, Louis of 
Bourbon, Montpenfier, and others, the fpoils of 
the brilliant victory of St. Quentin, where the 
Earl's father had led the Englifh contingent. 
Sidney looked with impatience on the trophies of 
martial valour, and longed to carry out into prac- 
tice the ideal of Christian chivalry which his 
imagination had conceived. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 



117 




Ch 



APTER 



V. 



RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE. 

Life is a bufinefs, not good cheer." 

George Herbert. 

N January, 1 5 8 1 ,* Sidney was returned 
to Parliament as Knight of the Shire 
for Kent. The mofh important pro- 
ceedings of this Parliament, which only 
fat for a few weeks, were a petition to the Queen 
to take care for the maintenance of cc Mariners 
and of Navigation, the very ftrength and walls of 
her Majefty's realm ; " and Sir W. Mildmay's 
Committee for drawing up cc fuch laws as would 
fecure the kingdom againft the Pope and his ad- 




* This date is 1580 in the Commons' Reports; according to 
the old way of reckoning, the end of the year. But it is ftyled 
the 23rd of Elizabeth. 



n8 The Life of 

herents." Of that celebrated committee Sidney- 
was a member. The nation was violently excited 
againft the Roman Catholics, partly from appre- 
henfion of mifchief from the Queen's impending 
marriage with Anjou ; partly from difcoveries 
which had been recently made of priefts intriguing 
as fecret agents of fedition. The College of Douai 
had been founded by Philip of Spain for the pur- 
pofe of training up Englifh youths in the old re- 
ligion, and under his own political influence. A 
fimilar college had been inftituted at Rheims by 
the Cardinal of Lorraine, uncle of the Duke of 
Guife and of Mary, Queen of Scots. From thefe 
feminaries and from Rome the pupils returned to 
England devoted fervants of the Pope, with hearts 
and minds fkilfully weaned from patriotic affec- 
tion by the fophiftry of the Jefuits. Loyola's 
Society had already begun to recover, by zeal and 
difcipline, the failing hold of the Papacy on 
Chriftendom. The devotion of the Jefuits as 
miflionaries in India, Japan, and America, their 
learning among fcholars, and their craft among 
politicians, extended the power of the Church of 
Rome on every fide. The more pious among 
them gained refpect by their auftere and felf- 
denying lives. The more artful undermined the 
principles of the Reformation by imbuing the 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 1 9 

fchools with a falfe and pernicious fyftem of morals. 
Confciences were led, under their direction, away 
from the love of truth in belief and in practice. 
For truth they fubftituted Papal authority, on the 
ftrength of which their hearers were taught to be- 
lieve the moft palpable impoftures, and to commit 
the darken 1 treafon without compunction. Cafes 
were noted in their books under which lying, falfe 
fwearing, and afTaflination became lawful ; and 
the fupreme teft of lawfulnefs was the fanction of 
the Pope. Againft Elizabeth no attempt was 
criminal ; for Pius V. had denounced her as a 
heretic, fchifmatic, and ufurper, and had abfolved 
her fubjects from their allegiance. Jefuits pro- 
mulgated againft her and her counfellors the 
fouleft libels, and their followers were continually 
plotting the overthrow of her government, not 
feldom aiming at her life. It was therefore thought 
necerTary by Parliament to ufe very ftringent 
meafures for the Queen's protection. Her life 
was juftly regarded as eflential to the welfare of 
the kingdom. Sidney compared her* to the brand 
in the legend of Meleager : — "Whenever me 
perifhes, farewell to all our quietnefs." 

From Sidney's childhood he had been brought 

* Letter to Count of Naffau : Pears. 



1 20 The Life of 

up in a ftrong perfuafion of the falfehood and 
danger of Romifh doctrines \ and this had been 
confirmed by his foreign experience and by his 
intercourfe with Languet. The refult of the fit- 
tings of Sir W. Mildmay's Committee appeared 
in laws the feverity of which cannot be juftified. 
Whoever became reconciled to Rome, or aided in 
reconciling another, was declared to be guilty of 
treafon. Any one who faid mafs was liable to a 
year's imprifonment, and a fine of ioo marks. 
Abfence from church for a month was punifhable 
by a fine of 20/. But the Papal agents are chiefly 
to blame for the hardfhips which were fufFered in 
confequence of thefe laws by peaceful and loyal 
Catholics ; for their doctrines had fhaken in their 
friends the very foundations of good faith and 
juftice, and provoked their foes to retaliate. One 
of thefe agents, Campian, a man of great zeal and 
talents, who had been at Oxford and afterwards 
atDouai, was arretted; and his confeflion, extorted 
on the rack, tended, whether true or falfe, to ex- 
afperate the people ftill more. He was hanged 
at Tyburn while the Duke of Anjou was in Eng- 
land, profecuting in perfon his fuit for Elizabeth's 
hand. 

The French King fent, in April, a fplendid 
embaffy, to draw up the articles of marriage in 



Sir Philip Sidney. I 2 1 

preparation for the arrival of Anjou himfelf. The 
ambafladors were very gracioufly received by the 
Queen, and magnificently entertained. On Whit- 
Monday the noblemen of her Court prepared for 
them a ftately pageant, which was called a 
" Triumph." Here we meet again with Sidney 
at the Court. From Languet's correfpondence 
it feems likely that William of Orange may have 
reconciled Anjou to him; and the Court is faid 
to have been c< maimed without his company," 
The cc triumph," which is defcribed at vaft length 
in Stow's Chronicle, gives a lively picture of this 
fort of diversions, in which Elizabeth delighted, 
and of which Sidney was a great inventor. At 
one end of the tilt-yard at Whitehall was a gallery, 
which was named for the occafion the Cattle of 
Perfect Beauty, and here the Queen herfelf fat. 
Four knights, calling themfelves the Fofter-chil- 
dren of Defire, delivered to her by a page an 
allegorical meflage, announcing their intention to 
lay fiege to the cattle, and giving a general challenge 
to any knights to venture with lance and fword in 
its defence. Thefe four challengers were the Earl 
of Arundel, Lord Windfor, Mr. Philip Sidney, 
and Mr. Fulke Greville. Sidney's appearance 
with his retinue is thus minutely defcribed : — 
" Then proceeded Matter Philip Sidney in very 



122 . The Life of 

fumptuous manner, with armour part blue and 
the reft gilt and engraven, with four fpare horfes, 
having caparifons and furniture very rich and 
coftly, as fome of cloth of gold embroidered with 
pearl, and fome embroidered with gold and filver 
feathers, very richly and Cunningly wrought." 
He had four pages that rode on his four fpare 
horfes, followed by thirty gentlemen and yeomen, 
and four trumpeters, all gaily attired in yellow and 
filver ; cc and they had upon their coats a fcroll 
or band of filver that came fcarf-wife over the 
moulder, and fo down under the arm, with this 
pofy or fentence written both before and behind, 
Sic nos non nobis" The allufion feems to be to 
Anjou, as being the real winner of the prize to 
which Sidney and his fellow- challengers made 
their mimic fiege. Sidney was noted for the 
variety and fancy of his mottoes. Several occur 
in the Arcadia. One of his own, Sine refluxu, 
correfponds with Hampden's famous device, Vef- 
tigia nulla retrorfum. Another expreffes a fimilar 
refolution not to yield to adverfe circumftances : 
Aut viam inveniam, aut faciam ; while another 
obfcurely implies, what he elfewhere uttered plainly, 
that he would not owe his worth to family or 
fortune : Fix ea noflra voco. 

The tournament was held for two days, and 



Sir Philip Sidney. 123 

was interfperfed with complimentary fpeeches to 
the Queen. Among other mafques two knights, 
perforating Adam and Eve, with long hair over 
their armour, prefented addrefles to her ; and 
cannon loaded with fweet-fcented powder were 
fired off from a canvas fort, with many more fuch 
contrivances. After holding their ground againft 
all comers with fuccefs, the challengers fent to the 
Queen a page in afh-coloured garments, bearing 
an olive-branch in his hand. They aflced pardon 
of her Majefty ; they acknowledged their ramnefs 
and prefumption in attempting the caftle where 
Perfect Beauty together with Virtue was enthroned 
in her perfon ; and they made to her their humble 
fubmifTion. 

On this occafion Sidney had the happinefs of 
being diftinguifhed above all others, as appears 
from the following, the beft known of his fonnets : — 

" Having this day my horfe, my hand, my knee, 
Guided fo well that I obtained the prize, 
Both by the judgment of the Englifh eyes, 

And of fome fent from that fweet enemy France, 

Horfemen my fkill in horfemanfhip advance : 

Town folks my ftrength: a daintier judge applies 
His praife to Height which with good ufe doth rife: 

Some lucky wits impute it but to chance : 
Others, becaufe of both fides I do take 

My blood from them who did excel in this, 



124 *Tfo Life of 

Think Nature me a man of arms did make. 

How far they fhot awry ! The true caufe is, 
Stella looked on, and from her heavenly face 
Sent forth the beams which made (o fair my race," * 

The concluding lines refer to Lady Penelope 
Devereux, for whom his love had increafed rather 
than abated with time. But a bitter difappoint- 
ment was in ftore for him. She was forced, not 
long after this tournament, into a marriage with 
a man whom me hated. Robert Lord Rich, 
having fucceeded in this year to his title and 
large eftates, was accepted by the Countefs as her 
daughter's hufband. He was a rough and illiterate 
man, and of a mean difpofition. His wealth and 
influence, however, were fuch that he was raifed 
by James I. to the earldom of Warwick. When 
this unfortunate marriage took place, Sidney was 
broken-hearted. He could not refrain from giving 
utterance to his grief, and to his indignant fcorn 
of his churlifh rival. O vermaftered by his thoughts, 
as he himfelf fays of his poetry, he expreffed them 
in a number of fonnets. Thefe, with others pre- 
vioufly written, were collected and printed after 
his death under the title of " Aftrophel and Stella." 
Sidney is Aftrophel, and Lady Rich is Stella. For 

* Sonnet XLI. 



Sir Philip Sidney* 125 

beauty of thought and expreflion thefe poems are 
juftly celebrated; but they cart a blot upon the 
purity of Sidney's name. 

In faying fo much, however, it is necefTary to 
defend his memory from afperfions which have 
been founded on a fuperficial reading of the 
Sonnets. He was not, as he has been fometimes 
reprefented, a man of lax morals. The whole of 
his blamelefs life is a vindication of his character 
againfl any doubtful inference from his own verfes; 
and thefe prove nothing more clearly than his keen 
moral fenfibility. No fimilar writings in any 
time exhibit more finely the ftruggle in a noble 
mind between confcience and paflion, with the 
final victory of the right ; and, according to the 
tafte of the period, they muft be judged to be 
pure in expreflion alfo. Sidney's fame has been 
his chief enemy. Words which were never meant 
for other eyes, but poured out of his overburdened 
heart in fecret or in flricr, confidence, have been 
publifhed to the world. Thus his fancies, wifhes, 
and regrets, long fince repented of with tears, are 
exhibited as deliberate and fhamelefs : fact and 
fiction are indifcriminately mingled ; and in the 
confufion of earlier and later fonnets all are ex- 
pofed to the blame of a time when his love could 
no longer be lawful. It is a cruel treachery of 



126 The Life of 

friendship when a dead man's private words are 
fubmitted without explanation to the rifk of 
wrong. Much depends on the true order of the 
pieces in Aftrophel and Stella. But neither this 
nor the date can be precifely determined. It is 
likely that the twenty-fourth Sonnet, in which 
allufion is made to Lord Rich, was written after 
the thirtieth, which treats of foreign politics, ap- 
parently in 1580, and the forty-firft, of which his 
fuccefs in the tournament is the fubject. The 
fourth fong, which follows the eighty-fifth Sonnet, 
was evidently written while Philip and Penelope 
were inmates of Leicefter Houfe together. More 
indications of irregular arrangement in the order 
of the Sonnets may be obferved by careful ftudy. 
We have Sidney's own teftimony to the referve 
and delicacy of his love, in a form which makes 
it indifputable : — 

tf Becaufe I breathe not love to every one, 
Nor do not ufe fet colours for to wear, 
Nor nourifh fpecial locks of vowed hair, 

Nor give each fpeech a full point of a groan ; 

The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan 
Of them who in their lips Love's flandard bear, 
' What he ? ' fay they of me, ' now dare I fwear 

He cannot love ; no, no, let him alone.' 

And think fo ftill, fo Stella know my mind : 

Profefs, indeed, I do not, Cupid's art ; 



Sir Philip Sidney. 127 

But you, fair maids, at length this true fhall find, 
That his right badge is but worn in the heart; 

Dumb fwans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove ; 

They love indeed, who quake to fay they love."* 

Simple juftice requires that what in any one's 
conduct is obfcure mould be conftrued agreeably 
to the part which is clear. It is no true candour, 
but a fpirit of detraction, which would interpret 
in the worn: fenfe questionable pafTages of a good 
man's life. How much caufe there is to difbelieve 
that Sidney profefTed without fhame his love for 
Lady Rich appears further by comparifon of 
Spenfer's cc Aftrophel." In that beautiful elegy, 
written after Sidney's death, and infcribed to his 
widow, the name of Stella is given to her, which 
would be inconceivable if the world had already 
learned to afTociate it with another woman. The 
author of the " Mourning Mufe of Theftylis " 
defcribes Lady Sidney more evidently under the 
name of Stella. A reafonable account of Sidney's 
Sonnets is that he took his emotions as the 
ground of poetical fancies, which were fcattered 
about, as the verfes of poets are apt to be, fome 
circulating freely, others referved to his moft in- 
timate friends ; fo that the perfonal application of 

* Sonnet LIV. 



128 The Life of 

them was unknown till they were brought together. 
Thus, for the want of a few lines which might 
ferve for a key, it is ftill difputed whether Shake- 
fpeare's Sonnets are addrefTed to a real or an imagi- 
nary friend, and whether to one or more than one. 
Whatever blame Sidney's paflion may deferve 
is mitigated by the ftrongeft claim for excufe. 
He had been encouraged to regard Penelope 
Devereux as his affianced wife. His love, originally 
founded on efteem, had grown with years and 
familiar acquaintance, and had guarded him from 
the allurements to which his matchlefs perfonal 
graces expofed him. He himfelf fays of its 
effects, — 

" If that be fin which doth the manners frame, 

Well flaid with truth in word, and faith of deed, 
Ready of wit, and fearing nought but fhame ; 
If that be fin which in fixed hearts doth breed 

A loathing of all loofe unchaftity, 

Then love is fin, and let me finful be."* 

On the part of Lady Penelope there feems to 
have been a warm and rmcere affection : — 

" When I was forced from Stella, ever dear, — 
Stella! food of my thoughts, heart of my heart, — 

Stella ! whofe eyes make all my tempefts clear, 
By iron laws of duty to depart, 

* Sonnet XIV. 



Sir Philip Sidney, 129 

Alas ! I foilnd that fhe, with me, did fmart : 

I faw that tears did in her eyes appear, 
I faw that fighs her fweeteft lips did part."* 

She, however, refolved to do her duty, and 
urged him to make off his finful loveficknefs, 
declaring, — 

" That love fhe did, but loved a love not blind, 

Which would not let me, whom fhe loved, decline 

From nobler courfe, fit for my birth and mind ; 
And therefore, by her love's authority, 

Will'd me thefe tempefts of vain love to fly, 
And anchor fall myfelf on virtue's fhore/'f 

It would have been well if fhe had in later 
years been able to practife the virtue which fhe 
had taught Sidney. Her fubfequent career was 
guilty and miferable. Her beloved brother Robert, 
Earl of EfTex, was taken from her in his prime, 
impelled to his ruin by her ambition or pique. 
She incurred fome rifk of fharing his fate by her 
defperate efforts to fave him. The hufband to 
whom fhe had been fold was an object of unceafing 
averflon to her; and fhe left him for Charles, Lord 
Mountjoy, afterwards Earl of Devonfhire. In the 
next reign her marriage to the Earl, while Lord 
Rich was frill living, led to her banifhment from 
the Court. She died foon afterwards. 

* Sonnet LXXXVII. f Sonnet LXII. 



130 The Life of 

The conflict of love and duty agitated Sidney- 
much. At length duty prevailed, and he over- 
came his paflion in the right way, rifing above it, 
not wearing it out.* His mind emerged from this 
great trial without degradation. Even while he 
was under the influence of the idolatrous and rebel- 
lious fpirit from which human love is rarely free, 
his thoughts partook moft of its nobleft effecls, 
as his own fhepherd defcribes them :— Cf Hath 
not the only love of her made us raife up our 
thoughts above the level of the world ? Hath 
not the defire to feem worthy in her eyes made 
us, when others were fleeping, to fit viewing the 
courfe of the heavens ? when others were running 
at bafe, to run over learned writings ? when others 
were marking their fheep, we to mark ourfelves?" 

* In Mr. Craik's intereiling work, " The Romance of the 
Peerage,'' " Aftrophel and Stella " is placed feveral years too 
late. (1. 90.) Sonnet XXX. was probably written in 1580 
(fee Pears, p. 172); certainly not in 1585, when Maurice, 
Prince of Orange, was a boy. Mr. Craik's other argument for 
his date is a curious error. " Sir Phip," in Sonnet LXXXIII, 
is not " Sir Philip Sidney," but a pet dog or bird. Both Mr. 
Craik and Mr. Bourne in his recent Memoir (p. 108) take for 
granted that Lady Rich is the Stella of Spenfer and Bryfkett. 
But that Stella is manifeilly Sidney's widow, who was with 
him when he died. The ufe of Stella's name is an evidence 
that Sidney's firir. love had long pafTed from fadl into poetry. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 131 

In the end his foul, faddened yet chaftened, rofe 
like Spenfer's from earthly to heavenly love, as 
he exprefies in a fbnnet which mould have been 
printed with the reft, with its concluding motto, 
cc Splendidis longum valedico nugis" 

" Leave me, O love ! which reaches but to duft, 

And thou, my mind, afpire to higher things, 
Grow rich in that which never taketh ruft, 

Whatever fades, but fading pleafure brings ; 
Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might 

To that fweet yoke, where lafting freedoms be, 
Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light 

That doth both mine, and give us eyes to fee. 
O take fall hold ! Let that light be thy guide, 

In this fmall courfe which birth draws out to death ; 
And think how ill becometh him to Aide, 

Who feeketh heav'n, and comes of heavenly breath. 
Then farewell, world, thy uttermoft I fee. 

Eternal love, maintain thy life in me!'' 

The fame year, 158 1, brought Sidney another 
forrow in the death of Languet. Their friend- 
mip continued to the laft unabated. Shortly 
before his death, Languet wrote exprefling a 
tender concern for Sidney's health, and urging 
him to marry. He feems to have heard of his 
unhappy attachment, but not to have known the 
circumftances. The wife of Du Pleflis Mornay 
attended upon him in his laft illnefs ; and he was 



132 •.'. The Life of 

buried at Antwerp, where he died, with much 
honour, being followed to the grave by the Prince 
of Orange. Mornay, in the preface to his work 
on the " Truth of the Chriftian Religion," fpoke 
with hearty affection of Languet's talents, his 
modefty, and his exemplary life and death. 

Sidney would now have welcomed any offer of 
active employment ; and a propofal was made to 
him which he would have accepted if the Queen's 
permiffion could have been obtained. The popular 
claimant to the throne of Portugal, Don Antonio, 
folicited him in a flattering letter to join his ex- 
pedition. Antonio's title to the throne was not 
good, but the kingdom had been violently feized 
by Philip of Spain in the abfence of any direct 
heir ; and the Portuguefe preferred an illegitimate 
prince to a foreigner. There was no nearer re- 
prefentative of Don Sebaftian, who had perifhed 
with his army in Morocco in 1578, the laft of 
the Crufaders. He was alfo fupported, though not 
openly, by England and France. Several Englifh 
gentlemen volunteered to affift him in making 
war againrt the King of Spain ; but he wrote to 
Sidney that " although many more mould come, 
if you are abfent I mail fay I have not my proper 
number." To Sidney the expedition was doubly 
attractive. He defired to ferve in a campaign, 



Sir Philip Sidney. 133 

and he defired to ferve againfl Philip ; for he was 
impatient to fee the time when England mould 
face the conteft which he knew to be impending, 
and throw down the gauntlet to the Spaniard. 
He often converfed with Fulke Greville on the 
neceflity of aiding the revolted Netherlands, and 
of fitting out a navy to attack the pofTerlions of 
Spain in the Indies. Under the religious pro- 
fessions of Philip and of the Inquifition, he faw 
a deep fcheme for uprooting all feeds of freedom 
utterly. He was incredulous as to the reality of 
the fuperftition which certainly was one of the 
ruling motives of the grim and fullen tyrant. 
He recognized in Philip's zeal only an engine of 
his felfifh policy ; and warming with indignation, 
he would fay, " that tyrants were no anointed 
deputies of God, but of the prince of darknefs." 
Such had been Languet's doctrine, and the fub- 
ject of a treatife which he left unfinifhed at his 
death. The fame theory was promulgated on 
the oppofite fide by the houfe of Guife, and with 
fatal effects ; for its refults were the arTaffination 
of two fuccefiive kings of France, Henry III. and 
Henry IV. In the following century a fimilar 
doctrine, found among the papers of Algernon 
Sidney, was the chief evidence that led to his 
unjuft conviction. It is one of the many partial 



134 The Life of 

truths which none but the moll juft and loyal 
minds can bear to entertain without drawing from 
them fallacious and deadly confequences. 

The profpect of fuccefs with Don Antonio 
feems to have been very faint and vifionary. He 
wanted apparently that force of character which 
is indifpenfable in the leader of a war of inde- 
pendence. But Sidney was prevented from joining 
him by Elizabeth's refufal to give him leave of 
abfence. She was ftill reluctant to compromife 
herfelf with the king of Spain, and me was alfo 
apt to be unwilling to fpare her lords and gentle- 
men from the kingdom. With fomething of a 
mother's impatience of feparation from her chil- 
dren, the great Queen confented with difficulty 
to foreign expeditions, and recalled them on flight 
pretexts. She found for Sidney fome employ- 
ment on confidential fervice at home, the nature 
of which cannot be afcertained more precifely : 
In the Burleigh Papers there is a letter from 
Sidney to the Queen dated Gravefend, Nov. 10, 
158 1. He writes: — 

" This rude piece of paper mail prefume, 
becaufe of your Majefty's commandment, mod 
humbly to prefent fuch a cipher as little leifure 
could afford me. If there come any matters to 



Sir Philip Sidney. 135 

my knowledge the importance of which mall de- 
ferve to be fo marked, I will not fail (fince your 
pleafure is my only boldnefs) to your own hand 
to recommend it. In the mean time I befeech 
your Majefty will vouchfafe legibly to read my 
heart in the courfe of my life, and though itfelf be 
but of a mean worth, yet to efteem it like a poor 
houfe well fet. I moft humbly kifs your hands, and 
pray God your enemies may then only have peace 
when they are weary of knowing your force." 

Sidney's correfpondence with the Queen may 
be conjectured to have fome reference to French 
politics, in which he was afterwards employed by 
her, notwithstanding the ftrong language he had 
ufed of the Houfe of Valois and of the negotiation 
with the Duke of Anjou. In the fame month of 
November Anjou arrived in England, and the 
nuptials feemed to be imminent. For nearly 
three months the nation was in fufpenfe, while the 
Queen vacillated between prudence and inclina- 
tion. At length, in February, he made up his 
mind that he was only wafting time, and departed 
for his government in the Netherlands. Eliza- 
beth parted from him reluctantly, and accompa- 
nied him as far as Canterbury. She alfo fent a 
fplendid train of noblemen and gentlemen as his 



136 - The Life of 

efcort ; Leicester, Lord Howard, the Vice- Ad- 
miral, Lord Hunfdon, Lord Willoughby, Lord 
Sheffield, Sidney, Raleigh, and 500 more. They 
were delayed by unfavourable weather; but on the 
17th, having arrived in the Scheld, Anjou was 
received by the firft nobles and citizens of the 
United Provinces. He took the cuftomary oaths 
as Duke of Brabant, outride the gates of Antwerp, 
in the prefence of the Prince of Orange and his 
youthful fon Maurice. A fucceffion of feafts and 
pageants followed with magnificent procemons, 
for which Belgium has long been celebrated. 
Allegorical figures perfonating Religion, Juftice, 
Prudence and Fortitude, Patriotifm and Patience, 
greeted the Duke, who was foon, however, to 
difpel the fair hopes which afcribed thefe virtues 
to him. In violation of hofpitality, gratitude, 
and oaths the moft folemn and reiterated, he con- 
fpired to feize and fack Antwerp, and to make his 
fovereignty abfolute. The courage of the citizens 
defeated his attempt, but the bafenefs which he 
mowed confirmed the worft auguries of Sidney. 

For fome time after this fhort vifit to the 
Netherlands, Sidney appears to have been un- 
employed in any public capacity. He fought in 
vain for a career in which he might do honour- 
able fervice to his country. He applied to the 



Sir Philip Sidney. 137 

Lord Treafurer to be joined with the Earl of 
Warwick in the adminiftration of the Ordnance 
Office. " I defire it more/' he faid, " for the 
being bufied in a matter, of fome ferviceable ex- 
perience, than for.any other commodity, which I 
think is but fmall that can be made of it." The 
Earl defired that this arrangement mould be made 
for his nephew, and the Queen gave her confent. 
But impediments were thrown in the way, and 
Sidney wrote the following characterifHc letter to 
Burleigh :■ — 

" Right Honourable my Singular 
Good Lord, 

« Without carrying with me any further reafon 
of this boldnefs than your well-known goodnefs 
unto me, I humbly crave of your Lordfhip your 
good word unto her Majefty for the confirming of 
the grant fhe once made unto me of joining me 
patent with the Earl of Warwick, whofe defire is 
that it mould be fo. The larger difcovering 
whereof I will omit as fuperfluous to your wif- 
dom, neither will I ufe more plenty of words, till 
God make me able to print them in fome fervice- 
able effect towards your Lordfhip. In the mean 
time I will pray for your long and profperous life, 
and fo humbly take my leave. 



138 The Life of 

" At Ramfbury, this 20th of July, 1583. Your 
Lordfhip's moil humbly at commandment, 

" Philip Sidney." 

He ftill maintained private, though not intimate, 
friendfhip with Burleigh; for about the fame time 
he wrote to him, touching gracefully the lofs 
which the Treafurer had fuftained by the death of 
his daughter's hufband, Mr. Wm. Wentworth:- — 

" I came up hoping to have been myfelf a de- 
liverer of the enclofed letter, and fo to have laid 
my father's mind and matters in your Lordfhip's 
hand, as on whofe advice and discretion he de- 
pendeth. But finding here the lofs that your 
Lordfhip hath of late had, it made me both at 
firft delay the fending and now the bringing; left, 
becaufe we were dear friends and companions to- 
gether, my fight might ftir fome grief in your 
Lordfhip." 

Sidney obtained at length the appointment to 
the Ordnance Office, but not without two years' 
more delay. His patent is dated July 21, 1585. 
This part of his life illuftrates the truth of the 
familiar lines, — 

" There is a tide in the affairs of men 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune 
Omitted, the remainder of the voyage 
Is bound in mallows." 



Sir Philip Sidney. 139 

Such a tide had offered itfelf to him. Birth, genius, 
royal favour, ariftocratic connection, efficient fer- 
vice rendered to the State, concurred to raife him 
at the age of twenty-three to the top of the wave 
of honour. Yet after the lapfe of fix years he 
was advanced no further. His father had pro- 
pofed that he mould be affociated with himfelf in 
the government of Ireland, when it was thought 
likely to be offered to him once more ; but the 
plan had fallen to the ground. He was flill Mr. 
Philip Sidney. Men whofe qualities were in all 
refpects poor compared with his, had furpaffed 
him in the race for worldly pofition. His great 
influence with the Queen and her chief advifers 
had been ufed and partially confumed during thefe 
years without any material advantage to himfelf. 
It had been fpent in recommending others to 
favour ; obfcure men of genius, poor poets, poor 
muficians, poor foldiers, and men of all kinds who 
either deferved or needed patronage ; and he had 
rifked his whole intereft for his country's good, 
when he endeavoured to diffuade the Queen from 
a marriage on which her heart was fet. She feems 
never to have liked him from that time forward. 
" She was very apt," Walfingham faid, " on every 
light occafion to find fault with him." Yet it 
muft be allowed that fhe had fome excufe, and 
her conduct to Sidney was in the main generous 



1 4Q The Life of 

and royal. She admired his character, and re- 
cognized his merits with a good grace, though 
often tardily. But the Lord Treafurer ftood in 
his way. The intrepid franknefs, which capti- 
vated while it provoked Elizabeth, had no charms 
for Burleigh. He was both diftruftful and jealous 
of him, as mere politicians are apt to be of a 
truly magnanimous man. Sharing the French 
diplomatics horror of zeal, he fhrank, perhaps 
without any ill will towards Sidney, from ufing 
his fervices ; and it was a part of, his policy, as 
Bacon obferved and felt, to keep able men in the 
background. Sidney was accufed to the Queen 
of ambition, becaufe he bore his forced inaction 
impatiently ; and of pride, becaufe he difdained 
the mean arts of courtiers. But if he failed to 
float forward on the tide which would have borne 
him to fortune, it was mainly the refult of his 
own choice. He had fet his fails another way, 
adopting the counfel of his favourite lines from 
Horace : — 

" You better fure fhall live not evermore 
Trying high feas." 

The aim of his life had been neither fortune nor 
glory, but to live well. He had his reward in 
the praife and love of the worthier!: men of his 



Sir Philip Sidney, 141 

own and of all Succeeding times, and a ftill higher 
witnefs in his conference that he had chofen the 
right path. It is hardly a matter for furprife or 
regret that he miffed the vulgar prizes of a fuc- 
cefsful life. Thofe who enjoy continued profpe- 
rity in ftate affairs, have commonly to lay afide 
fome virtuous fcruples, which cannot be deemed 
faftidious, for they preferve the whitenefs of the 
foul. 

Some unpublished MS. notices among the State 
Papers occupy, though very imperfectly, a vacant 
fpace in Sidney's biography which has hitherto 
appeared a blank. His name occurs from time 
to time in correfpondence with various perfons, 
always in a pofition of fome weight and influence, 
though not fuch as to alter materially the prevail- 
ing impreflion that his fervices were little ufed. 
He feems to have been appointed Captain of the 
Ifle of Wight, in March, 1583. His name occurs 
with the rank of General of Horfe, in a mufter roll 
of the army, in 1584; and he is fent with fome 
authority to Dover to confult with the Royal 
commiffioners upon the repair of the harbour. 
He is alfo implicated in numerous private matters, 
fometimes fuing for favours for his friends, making 
up quarrels, or interceding with the Spaniards for 
an Englifh failor condemned to die for piracy. 



142 The Life of 

At another time he appears in the lefs pleating 
afpect of being enriched, unwillingly, from the 
fines paid by recufants. Altogether Sidney led a 
bufy though certainly not an eventful life at that 
time. But the world prefented fo many grand 
enterprifes, that what would in another age have 
been only laudable ftillnefs and contentment, 
appeared then as no better than floth. 

Sidney meditated various fchemes at his leifure, 
among which he chiefly inclined to American 
difcovery. His imagination had long ago been 
excited by the reports of Frobifher and his com- 
panions, one of whom brought from Nova Scotia 
a nugget of gold which raifed high expectations 
in England, though it proved in the end to be 
worth no more than as much good building ftone. 
Languet, with his ufual caution and forethought, 
had warned him againft the fnare of the Indies: — 
Cf Beware," he faid, cc left the accurfed thirft of 
gold fhould creep into a mind which has hitherto 
admitted nothing but the love of truth and an 
anxiety to deferve well of all men." More 
recently his intereft in the unexplored marvels of 
the Weft, had been revived by the publication, in 
1582, of Hakluyt's "Divers Voyages touching 
the Difcovery of America and the Iflands adjacent," 
which was dedicated to Sidney. " We are half 



Sir Philip Sidney, 143 

perfuaded," he wrote to Sir Edward Stafford, the 
ambaffador at Paris, cc to enter into the journey of 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert very eagerly, whereunto 
your Mr. Hakluyt hath ferved for a very good 
trumpet." Hakluyt in his dedication craves of 
Sidney pardon for overboldnefs,truftingalfo that he 
will "continue and increafe his accuftomed favour 
towards thefe godly and honourable difcoveries." 
His book is an account of the voyages of Cabot 
and others, and an attractive defcription of Florida, 
originally addreffed to Francis I. of France, by one 
Verazzano. Under the name of Florida is com- 
prifed the whole coaft of the prefent Slave States 
of America. This country is defcribed as being 
fupplied with the richeft natural wealth : gold, 
filver, copper, lead, turquoifes and pearls, cc in fo 
marvellous abundance as is fcarce credible," fome 
of them being as big as acorns. A foil of great 
fertility, bearing two crops of wheat in the year ; 
firs, vines of great fize, all kinds of plants, and 
cc in fhort, nothing lacking for the life of man." 
Fair havens for mips at all tides, large rivers, a 
temperate climate, cc marvellous pleafant," fo that 
in the hotter!: time of year the failors had no fick- 
nefs in thirty- eight degrees of latitude. The peo- 
ple " of a good and ferviceable nature, which will 
be content to ferve thofe that mail with gentlenefs 



1 44 The Life of 

and humanity go about to allure them, as it is 
needful for thofe that be fent thither hereafter fo 
to do." In addition to the advantages of a fettle- 
ment on this coaft, Hakluyt encourages the hope 
of difcovering the great queft of Atlantic navi- 
gators, a north-weft pafTage to the Indies. He 
fubmits reafons for expecting to find a pafTage in 
lat. 58 °, where the name of Frobifher's Strait 
prefer ves the track of that famous feaman, and 
the delufive opening of Hudfon's Bay explains the 
author's error. A map of the fuppofed route is 
added ; and Hakluyt propounds as a phyfical law 
the hardy axiom, " Nature has made no fea un- 
navigable, nor land unhabitable." 

Sidney had poffibly been ftill further allured 
towards thefe adventures by the eloquent tongue 
of Walter Raleigh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's half- 
brother, who fafcinated all who approached him 
by his dazzling pictures of glory, dominion, and 
wealth to be gained in the Weft, That wonder- 
ful man, who feems the complete imperfonation 
of the genius and valour of Elizabeth's reign, 
was nearly of the fame age with Sidney, and they 
had been at Oxford together. In Court politics 
they were oppofed, particularly in reference to 
the French marriage ; for Raleigh was a friend of 
SufTex, under whom he had ferved, and who had 



Sir Philip Sidney. 145 

been Leicefter's chief rival. In 1579, Raleigh 
bore Oxford's merTage to Sidney, propofing an 
agreement. In 1582, they were affociated in the 
efcort of Anjou to the Netherlands. They were 
alfo united by the clofer bond of common friend- 
fhip for Spenfer. Both were of the fame mind 
in defiring to anticipate the hoftile deiigns of 
Spain by increasing the Englifh navy and attack- 
ing the Spanifh colonies. Both were heartily 
attached to their native country and to the Pro- 
teftant religion. In character, though effentially 
unlike, there were many points of fympathy be- 
tween them. Both were men of rare imagina- 
tion and enterprife, eager alike for knowledge 
and for fame. The talents of each were almoft 
equally verfatile. Raleigh was perhaps the fu- 
perior in grafp of intellect and force of will, 
though his reputation dates from a riper time of 
life than Sidney attained. Sidney's character is 
marked in contrail by a reftlefs afpiration after a 
more than earthly ideal. He was fo made that 
he could not long contemplate the kingdoms of 
the world and the glory of them without feeling, 
by and by, a deep fenfe of their vanity, however 
much his fancy might for a time be delighted. 
The extent of the private acquaintance of Ra- 
leigh and Sidney is doubtful. In fome lines, 



146 .■ The Life of 

which are believed on good authority to be Ra- 
leigh's, written after Sidney's death, he fays, — 

" I that, in thy time and living ftate, 
Did only praife thy virtues in my thought ;" 

but thefe verfes, while they make the intimate 
friendfhip of the two queftionable, feem to imply 
fome degree of perfonal knowledge. 

Sidney purfued his fcheme of colonization fo 
far as to obtain a grant of three million acres of 
American land, yet to be difcovered ; and of this 
he fold portions to other gentlemen who were 
difpofed to join in his adventure. Among the 
State Papers is an indenture by which 30,000 
acres of Sidney's eftate are conveyed to Sir George 
Peckham, of Denham, in Kent.* Happily, how- 
ever, Sidney did not fail with Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert. That fatal voyage was undertaken with 



* Domeftic Series, clxi. 44. Mr. Bourne has ftated the 
purport of this deed incorredtly. (Memoir, p. 372.) Sidney 
did not transfer his whole American eftate to Sir George 
Peckham. I have ventured (p. 143) to refer Sidney's letter 
to Sir Edward Stafford on Gilbert's voyage to this time, July, 
1583. The date which is given in the Sidney Papers (p. 298), 
and copied by Mr. Bourne (p. 421), is a year later. But 
Gilbert's journey was over long before July, 1584. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 147 

the faireft hopes. The Queen fent Sir Humphrey 
a jewel reprefenting an anchor guided by a lady, 
with a mefTage to the effect that me wifhed as well 
to his mip as if me were herfelf on board. But 
misfortune attended the expedition from the fir ft. 
Two mips out of five, Raleigh's being one of 
them, were compelled to return, difabled by con- 
tagious ficknefs among the crew. Another was 
wrecked, and a fourth, Sir Humphrey's own, the 
Squirrel, after having laid claim to Newfound- 
land, went down with all hands in a ftorm. It 
has often been related in verfe and profe how he 
was laft heard encouraging his men , in words 
which became a hero and a Chriftian, Cf Be of 
good heart, my friends ! we are as near to heaven 
on the ocean as on land." The remaining veftel, 
the Golden Hind, returned alone, bearing the 
news of the acquifition and the difafter. 

Next year Raleigh, nothing daunted, fitted 
out another expedition at his own coft, and with 
far -better fuccefs. He planted the royal ftandard 
on the American coaft to the north of Florida. 
In honour of the Virgin Queen he called that 
whole region Virginia, under which illuftrious 
name his patent of difcovery and right of fettle- 
ment were confirmed to him by a Parliamentary 
committee, of which Sidney was a member. 



148 The Life of 

In the mean time, Sidney's life, though barren 
of brilliant achievements, was not idle nor un- 
profitable. Befides literary works, which have 
been noticed in the laft chapter, he was engaged 
in a copious foreign correfpondence. Duplerlis 
Mornay wrote to him frequently, not only as to 
a private friend, but regarding Sidney as an able 
and influential ally of his mafter, the King of 
Navarre. It is a wide field for {peculation to 
inquire what might have been the refult if Sid- 
ney's policy of recognizing and aiding the Hu- 
guenots had been followed with decifion and 
constancy. Perhaps at that time the refources 
of England were unequal to fuch an effort. In 
July, 1583, Mornay complained that for three 
months he had not heard from Sidney, and in- 
quired whether he was married, that fo unufual 
an interval had occurred in their correfpondence. 
He had guefTed rightly. Sidney was married 
during this fummer, having chofen for his wife 
Frances Walfingham, daughter of the far-fighted 
and wily ftatefman who had been his faft friend 
ever fince he had fheltered him, in his boyhood, 
from the mafTacre of Paris. He had alfo become 
Sir Philip Sidney. 

From a few fcattered hints Dame Frances Sid- 
ney may be defcribed as a beautiful young girl, 



Sir Philip Sidney. 149 

of a homely difpofition little in harmony with her 
eventful fortunes. Elizabeth, as her manner was, 
fpoke of her flightingly ; but me feems to have 
deferved and earned the affectionate efteem of 
her hufband. There is no ground for the afTump- 
tion which has been made that his heart ftill 
wandered after Lady Rich ; though the ordinary 
courfe of human nature would fuggeft that the 
romance of love had forfaken him with her. 

The marriage contract was arranged by the 
parents. Sir Henry Sidney, in the valuable auto- 
biographical letter to Walfingham, to which re- 
ference has been made more than once, # fays, " I 
rejoice in the alliance with all my heart .... 
I know that it is the virtue which is, or that 
you fuppofe is, in my fon, that you made choice 
of him for your daughter, refufing happily far 
greater and far richer matches." On the other 
hand, he declares bluntly, " If I had regarded 
any prefent gain, I might have received a great 
fum of money for the goodwill of my fons mar- 
riage, much to the relief of my prefent biting 
neceffity." Young men in that day deferred to 
their elders in a degree which now appears ex- 
traordinary. Thus Philip's relation to Leicefter 

* State Papers, vol. cux. Ludlow, March i, 1582-3. 



150 The Life of 

had led him, in 1582,* to afk leave to ahfent 
himfelf from Court, for his health and for other 
reafons, with the fimplicity of a child. Sir 
Henry defcribes his three fons as " one of excel- 
lent good promife, the fecond of great good hope, 
the third not to be defpaired, but very well to be 
liked." His eftate, however, was greatly em- 
barrafled. cc I am now 54 years of age, tooth- 
lefs and trembling, being 5000/. in debt, and 
30,000/, worfe than I was at the death of my 
moft dear lord and mafter, King Edward VI. 
Commend me/' he concludes, " moft heartily 
to my good lady, couiin, and flfter, your wife, 
and blefs and bufs our fweet daughter. And if 
you will vouchfafe, beftow a blefting on the young 
knight, Sir Philip." Sidney had been knighted 
at Windfor, in January. He was deputed to re- 
ceive the Order of the Garter at the inftallation of 
his friend Prince Cafimir,f whom Elizabeth had 
invefted with her own hands four years before. 
Thus the honour of which he was moft worthy 
was conferred upon him by a byway. After 
being for years renowned throughout Europe as 



* Collins, 1. 392. The date of this letter is doubtful in 
the manufcript, the numbers being imperfectly formed. 
f This circumftance is explained by Mr. Bourne, p. 364. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 151 

a pattern of chivalry, he obtained the dignity of 
knighthood as proxy of another. 

Soon afterwards, his attention was called to a 
matter which touched him very nearly, but in 
which it cannot be expected or wifhed that others 
mould participate in his feelings. An anony- 
mous pamphlet appeared, in 1584, called " Lei- 
cester's Commonwealth," the purpofe of which 
was to vilify and defame the Earl of Leicefter. 
It is generally understood to have been the work 
of an Englifh Jefuit, Robert Parfons, a man of 
bad character and indefatigable hoftility to Eliza- 
beth's government. Commencing with a plaufi- 
ble air of impartiality, this book proceeds to load 
the Earl with the moft loathfome imputations. 
While the authorfhip was ftill uncertain, Sidney 
applied himfelf to defend his uncle ; and wrote a 
reply which was found in manufcript at Penfhurft 
in the middle of the laft century. This " De- 
fence of Leicefter" has been praifed by Horace 
Walpole, who otherwife difparages Sidney, as 
being a favourable fpecimen of his powers. It 
feems, however, to be no more than a rough 
draft, not finally prepared for publication; nor 
is it truly a defence at all. Sidney argues with 
reafon that the libel is a covert attack upon the 
Queen through her favourite, and he convicts 



j 52 The Life of 

the author of fome hiftorical blunders, as well as 
of multiplying inconfiftent flanders againft Lei- 
cefter. But the greater part of his anfwer is 
devoted to an elaborate and fpirited expofure of 
the falfehood that the Dudleys were bafe-born, 
which touched himfelf. " I truly am glad," he 
faid, " to have caufe to fet forth the nobility of 
that blood whereof I am defcended, which but 
upon fo juft caufe without vainglory could not 
have been uttered." As for the accufations from 
which Leicester had real need to be defended, 
Sidney paffes them by as merely falfe and ma- 
licious ; reciting them with fcorn, " diffimulation, 
hypocrify, adultery, falfehood, treachery, poifon, 
rebellion, treafon, cowardice, atheifm, and what 
not." The character which hiftory has delivered 
of the Earl to our own time cannot fo lightly be 
exonerated from this black catalogue. Yet there 
is every reafon for fuppofing that Sidney believed 
him to be innocent. Even now the charges are 
ftrong fufpicions rather than proved crimes. 
On the two graveft, the death of Amy Robfart, 
and that of Walter, Earl of EfTex, Leicester was 
forward in demanding an inquiry, which feems 
in each cafe to have been fairly conducted, and 
yet failed to bring home any guilt to him. The 
very animofity of his Jefuit aflailant is in his 



Sir Philip Sidney. 153 

favour, as indicating that his power was adverfe 
to Papal interefts. But among his own country- 
men alfo his guilt or innocence was made a party 
queftion, and partifan attacks were of the bittereft 
kind. His rivals in the Queen's favour, and the 
old enemies of his family, did not ihrink from 
ufing any calumny which Jefuit agents might 
invent. Hence it was natural that his own 
nephew and adopted heir mould difdain as flan- 
ders the matters which feem to us to call for 
careful fifting. Moreover, Robert Dudley was 
one of the moft perfuafive of men, and a profound 
difTembler. Though perfonally fumptuous, and 
a patron of plays and revels, he was a Puritan in 
religion, and his difcourfe was feafoned with pro- 
teftations of piety and honefty. Sidney had the 
generous weaknefs of being fomewhat blind to 
faults in his kindred; and upon no fubject was 
his judgment lefs fure than where they were con- 
cerned. Leicefter had been to the Sidneys a 
conftant and affectionate friend, beyond what the 
ties of blood between them demanded. His 
gracioufnefs of manners, and munificence towards 
men of letters, contrafted agreeably with the 
Queen's parfimony and the harm integrity of 
Burleigh. It was of ftill more confequence, that 
he was the foremofl advocate in England of 



1 54 The Life of 

hostility to the King of Spain and the Pope. 
Where hypocrify acts like virtue, detection is 
almoft impoflible. At this particular moment 
Leicefter was ftraining all his intereft, and pre- 
paring to rifk his whole private fortune, for the 
promotion of the alliance between England and 
the Netherlands. Whatever felfifri ambition may 
have been in his own mind, his public conduct 
for the time was that of a patriot. 

The revolt of the Netherlands had reached a 
crifis. In June, 1584, the Duke of Anjou died 
of a ftrange and painful difeafe, fw eating blood 
like his brother Charles IX. This event would 
have been comparatively unimportant, if William 
of Orange had lived to hold the Provinces together 
by his commanding influence ; but he alfo died a 
month later, aflafTinated by a fanatical Papift. It 
was no longer pofTible for the Dutch to carry on 
the war againfl: Spain without foreign affiftance. 
The inflexible refolution to be free, and the wifdom 
of their devoted leader, had hitherto been a match 
for the Strategy and treafure oppofed to them ; 
but now, without a head, the States were likely to 
fall afunder. They were willing therefore to offer 
to France or England the fovereignty of a larger 
and far more flourifhing territory than the prefent 
kingdom of Holland, in consideration of being 



Sir Philip Sidney. 155 

protected in their laws and liberty. If neither 
France nor England would efpoufe their caufe, 
they could not much longer refufe Philip's over- 
tures of peace ; and peace involved the Spanifh 
Inquifition, Spanifh garrifons, Spanifh magiftrates, 
the Mafs, the destruction of their ancient con- 
futations, the lofs of the Bible and of religious 
freedom, with every conceivable circumftance of 
oppreflion and revenge. To France, as moffc 
favourably fituated for their defence, they made 
their firft appeal. It was feconded by a propofal 
from Elizabeth to Henry, On the occafion of 
Anjou's death Sidney was chofen* to condole with 
the King and with the Queen-mother Catharine, 
and to propofe a league between England and 
France for the purpofe of giving fuccour to the 
Netherlands. He was charged to exprefs the 
Queen's affection for Anjou, her private grief at 
his lofs, and her hope that the friendfhip which 
had been between the King and herfelf might 
continue unbroken. He was directed to call the 
king's attention to the ftate of the Low Countries 
in a fecond interview. 

cc In confequence of the lamented death of the 
Prince of Orange," Elizabeth propofed that Eng- 

** Cotton MS. Brit. Mus. Galba, E. vi. 241. 



156 The Life of 

land and France mould take fome meafures in 
concert for defence of " the poor afflicted people 
of the Low Countries, who without fome prefent 
afliftance will not be able to hold out." She was 
willing to make either a fecret or an open league 
with Henry; but Sidney was not empowered to 
treat any further than to receive propofals. The 
French king had already Jhown fo much change 
and coldnefs that Elizabeth was greatly dirTatisfied, 
and Sidney was ordered to return with fpeed if he 
mould meet with a cool reception. He did not, 
however, go to Paris. His miffion was delayed 
at firfl by the king's abfence in the fouth of France ; 
and it was finally abandoned, upon the accounts 
which Walfingham received of Henry's difpofi- 
tion.* Henry, overawed by Guife, fhrank from 
the profpect of a war with Spain, added to civil 
wars in his own kingdom. During many months 
he kept the Dutch in fufpenfe, while he negotiated 
with Philip with the view of turning their offer to 
his own profit. At length he let the envoys go 
with a difcourteous refufal. They then appealed 
to England, and Elizabeth received them favour- 
ably. She gave them audience without delay, and 

* MS. State Paper Office. Letters of Sir E. Stafford, 
July 23, — Auguft 10, 1584. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 157 

explained her intentions in a Latin fpeech with 
great clearnefs and energy. Abfolutely declining 
for herfelf the fovereignty of the United Provinces, 
me confented to fend an Englifh army to their 
afllftance. In doing this, me told the deputies, 
me knew me would offend the King of Spain as 
much as if me did more. Cf But what care I ?" 
me continues. cc We muft all die once. I know 
very well that many princes are my enemies, and 
are feeking my ruin ; and that where malice is 
joined with force, malice often arrives at its ends. 
But I am not fo feeble a princefs that I have not 
the means and the will to defend myfelf againft 
them all. They are feeking to take my life, but 
it troubles me not. He who is on high has de- 
fended me until this hour, and will keep me frill, 
for in Him do I truft." * 

Thus England embarked into the conflict with 
Spain, for which Sidney had long waited anxioufly. 
As a foldier he defired to take part in the great 
continental wars in which Raleigh, Norris, and 
others of his affociates had already gained renown. 
But he wiihed for war upon the deeper ground 
which alone can juftify the wifh, looking to war 
as the fafeguard of truth and liberty. While his 

* Motley, United Netherlands, u 



158 The Life of 

heart went along with the perfecuted citizens of 
Ghent, BrufTels, and other famous towns reduced 
or about to be reduced to fervile mifery, he alfo 
feared for his own dear country fimilar evils; and 
he regarded timely refinance to Philip as the beft 
means of felf-prefervation. How vital to England 
was the independence of the States, was fpeedily 
proved in the year of the Armada, when Parma 
waited in vain for a fleet to tranfport his fierce 
veterans acrofs the Channel. The relative condi- 
tion of Holland and Belgium, a century later, 
gives the means of comparing the mifchief of war 
with that of fuch a peace as the King of Spain's. 
The Earl of Leicefter was appointed to the 
command of the army; and Sidney hoped to 
obtain the poft of governor of Flufhing, one of 
the towns which were to be held in pledge by the 
Englifh. He was again difappointed. A rumour 
reached him that the poft was likely to be given 
to fome other perfon. More ferious rumours 
fpread that the Queen had changed her mind, 
and that the expedition would not proceed. She 
had indeed mown fome difpofition to waver in 
her purpofe, and it was only by means of the 
ftrenuous efforts of Walfingham and Leicefter 
that the agreement with the States was carried out. 
Time was loft in details of negotiation till it was 



Sir Philip Sidney. 159 

too late to fave Antwerp, which capitulated in 
Auguft, after a fiege which is memorable in hiftory 
for the extraordinary {kill and valour which was 
difplayed on both fides. And now Sidney gave 
up his whole mind to the project which he had 
long cherifhed, of founding a colony in the Weft 
Indies. His plans were concerted with Sir Francis 
Drake, who had lately received knighthood for 
his important difcoveries, and for his great though 
unfcrupulous fervices as a privateer. They were 
not well-afTorted companions. In colonization, as 
in other things, Sidney placed a lofty ftandard be- 
fore himfelf. It was his aim to avoid the faults 
of thofe who had made colonies of brigands and 
fugitives. Like Bacon, he felt that " it is a ihame- 
ful and unblefted thing to take the fcum of people 
and wicked condemned men, to be the people 
with whom you plant." # Sidney had perfuaded 
thirty gentlemen of good family and fortune to 
fell 100/. worth of land each for the expedition : 
he had alfo prevailed on the United Provinces to 
engage to aflift him with a fecond fleet. Lord 
Brooke defcribes him as propofing to all clafles of 
honeft men inducements according to their dif- 
pofltion : — fame, conqueft, and adventure over a 

f Eflay, Of Plantations. 



i6o 7 'he Life of 

boundlefs expanfe of land and Tea, for thofe who 
defired it; for the miflionary, the profpect of con- 
verting the heathen, and reclaiming the " poor 
Chriftians" who had been led affray by Romifh 
idolatry ; to the ingenious and induftrious, abun- 
dance of natural riches for ufeful arts to work 
upon ; while the word gold was a general allure- 
ment to every fort. It was agreed between Sidney 
and Drake that they mould have the joint com- 
mand of the fleet ; but that, fo long as the expe- 
dition was fitting out, the nominal commander 
mould be Drake alone. Sidney kept fecret his 
purpofe of failing, for fear of being detained 
by the Queen. The fame apprehenfion led him 
to ufe artifice in leaving the Court. The fleet, 
which Drake was provifioning with funds fupplied 
by Sidney, lay at Plymouth. As it happened, 
news reached the Court of Don Antonio's ex- 
pected arrival at that port, at the very time when 
Sidney received word that Drake's preparations 
were complete. He feized the excufe of going to 
meet Don Antonio, and left Richmond without 
fufpicion. But on his arrival at Plymouth he 
found unexpected delays on the part of Drake. 
The mips had been faid to be ready, waiting only 
for a favourable wind ; now the wind was favour- 
able, yet no orders were given to fail. At night 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 6 1 

Greville confided to Sidney, as they lay awake 
together, that Drake's procrastination appeared to 
him wilful. He rejected the fufpicion, but ob- 
ferved for himfelf, and in a few days he was con- 
vinced of its truth. By that time the Queen had 
notice of Sidney's plan ; and mefTengers were 
fent to flop his departure, or, in cafe of his 
refufal, to ftop the fleet. The firft meffenger was 
intercepted, and deprived of his papers by two of 
Sir Philip's followers in difguife. The next was 
a peer of the realm, who threatened him with the 
Queen's fevere difpleafure if he mould perfift; at 
the fame time offering to him the governorship of 
Flufhing with the military rank of general of 
horfe. Sidney fubmitted to the royal mandate, 
and Drake fet fail without him on September 17th. 
Elizabeth was fo well pleafed with Sidney's 
obedience that, inftead of puniming him for this 
attempt, me conferred upon him an unufual 
honour. While he was preparing to depart for the 
Netherlands his wife bore him a daughter, and the 
Queen came up to London from Richmond to be 
prefent at the chriftening as godmother. This was 
in November. Immediately afterwards, having 
paid a fhort vifit to Leicefter at Wanftead, Sidney 
failed for Flufhing, where he and the fupplies of 
money which he brought were anxioufly expected. 

M 



62 



The Life of 




Chapter VI. 




WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS. 

" Auch die Tugend 
Hat ihre Helden, wie der Ruhm, das Gliick." 

Wallenstein's Tod. 

LUSHING is built on the fouthern 
fhore of the fwampy ifland of Wal- 
cheren, which has rlnce acquired a 
melancholy celebrity in the annals of 
Great Britain. The climate is unhealthy, efpe- 
cially for foreigners ; but the town, from its 
fituation, is of the firft military and naval impor- 
tance. With the two outlying forts of Ramme- 
kins and Brefkins, on either fide of the Scheld, 
it commands the approach to Antwerp from the 
fea. Its maritime pofition is convenient for 
guarding or threatening the whole coaft. of the 
Netherlands ; and its ample harbour admits the 
larger! verTels to anchor alongside the quays. 
Sidney's pafTage, on Thurfday, Nov. 18, was fo 



Sir Philip Sidney. 163 

flormy that he was unable to enter the harbour, 
and landed at Rammekins. He was received at 
Flushing by Edward Norris, a young man of 
diftinguifhed valour, who had landed with the 
firft divifion of the Englifh contingent, and held 
the town, till the arrival of the governor, who 
took the oaths of office on Sunday the 21ft. In 
the following urgent letter to the Earl of Lei- 
cefter, Sidney gives his firft impreffions of the 
ftate of affairs in Zealand.* 

" Right Honourable my Singular Good 
Lord, 
" Upon Thurfday we came into this town, 
driven to land at Ramekins, becaufe the wind 
began to rife in fuch fort as our matters durft 
not anchor before the town ; and from thence 
came with as dirty a walk as ever poor governor 
entered his charge withal. I find the people 
very glad of me, and promife myfelf as much 
furety in keeping this town as popular goodwill, 
gotten by light hopes and by as flight conceits, 
may breed me ; for indeed the garrifon is far too 
weak to command by authority, which is pity ; 
for how great a jewel this is to the crown of Eng- 

* This and the following letters are copied, with a few un- 
important emendations, from Mr. Gray's Colleclion. 



164 The Life of 

land, I need not write to your Lordfhip, who 
knows it fo well. Yet, I muft needs fay, the 
better I know it, the more I find the precioufnefs 
of it. I have fent to Mr. Norris for my coufin's 
Scots company, for Colonel Morgan's, and my 
brother's (which I mean to put in the Ramekins), 
but I doubt I mail but change, and not increafe, 
the enfigns, by any more than mine own com- 
pany, for fear of breeding jealoufies in this people, 
which is carried more by mows than fubftance ; 
and therefore the way muft be rather to increafe 
the number of men in each company, than the 
companies, and that may be done eafily enough, 
with their good liking; but I mean to innovate 
as little as may be till your Lord/hip's coming, 
which is here longed for as Meffias is of the 
Jews ; but indeed moft necefiary is it that your 
Lordfhip make great fpeed to reform both the 
Dutch and Englifh abufes. 

" I am more and more perfuaded that, with that 
proportion which her Majefty alloweth, the coun- 
try is fully able to maintain the wars, if what they 
do be well ordered, and not abufed, as it is by the 
States ; and that they look for at your Lordfhip's 
hands : it being ftrange that the people mow 
themfelves far more careful than the governors 
be in all things touching the public. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 165 

cc The taking of the fconces by Mr. Norris 
was of good moment ; but now his lying before 
Nimeguen is greatly feared will both wafte his 
men, (befide the danger of the enemy, who very 
ftrongly marcheth that way,) and little prevail, 
there being a great river between him and the 
city. But the great fufficiency of the gentleman 
may overweigh other conjectures. Mr. Edward 
Norris delivered the companies here unto me, 
whom he had very well and foldierly governed, 
but the companies indeed very fickly and mifer- 
able. Good my Lord, hafte away, if you do come, 
for all things considered I had rather you came 
not at all, than came not quickly ; for only by 
your own prefence thefe courfes may be flopped, 
which, if they run on, will be paft remedy. Here 
is Aldegonde, a man greatly fufpected, but by 
no man charged. He lives reftrained to his 
houfe, and, for aught I can find, deals with 
nothing, only defiring to have his caufe wholly 
referred to your Lordfhip, and therefore with the 
beft heed I can to his proceedings, I will leave 
him to his clearing or condemning when your 
Lordfhip fhall hear him. I think truly if my 
coming had been longer delayed, fome alteration 
would have followed ; for the truth is, the people 
is weary of war, and if they do not fee fuch a 



1 66 The Life of 

courfe taken as may be likely to defend them, 
they will on a fudden give over the caufe. The 
Hollanders have newly made Count Maurice 
Governor of Holland and Zealand, which only 
grew by the delays of your Lordfhip's coming ; 
but I cannot perceive any meaning of either 
diminifhing or crofting your Lordfhip's authority, 
but rather that the Count means wholly to de- 
pend on your Lordfhip's authority. 

cc With 3000/. charges I could find means fo 
to lodge myfelf and foldiers in this town, as 
would in an extremity command it, where now 
we are at their mercy. The enemy threatens 
divers places, as Oftend, Sluys, Bergen, and 
Bomel, but yet we have no certain news what he 
will attempt : but whatfoever it be, there is great 
likelihood he will endanger it : the foldiers are fo 
evil paid and provided of everything that is 
neceffary. I have dealt earnestly with the States 
of Zealand, for the relief of Oftend, but yet can 
obtain nothing but delays. To conclude, all will 
be loft if government be not prefently ufed. 
Mr. Davifon* is here very careful in her Ma- 
jefty's caufes, and in your Lordfhip's ; he takes 



* William Davifon, who foon afterwards was facriiiced by 
Elizabeth, for his fhare in the execution of Mary. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 167 

great pains therein, and goes to great charges for 
it. I am yet fo new here that I cannot write fo 
important matters as perhaps hereafter I mall, 
and therefore I will not any further triflingly 
trouble your Lordfhip, but humbly leave you to 
the blefTed protection of the Almighty. At 
Flufhing, this 22nd of November, 1585. 

" Your Lordfhip's mod: humble 

" And obedient nephew, 

" Philip Sidney. 

" Mr. Edward Norris, as likewife his brother, 
put great hope in your Lordihip, which I have 
thought good to nourifh, becaufe I think it fit 
for your Lordfhip's fervice. Mr. Edward would 
fain have charge of horfes, and for caufe will feek 
to erect a company here. I am beholding to 
this bearer, Captain Fenton." 

Aldegonde, who is defcribed in this letter as 
living in retirement at Flufhing, had been burgo- 
mafter of Antwerp. His truft in the Prince of 
Parma had expofed him to the fufpicion of trea- 
chery, when he found himfelf reduced to furrender 
the city. But though his conduct feems to have 
been wanting in prudence, his character was fuffi- 
ciently high to be his vindication. He was one 



1 68 "The Life of 

of the moft eminent of the friends of William of 
Orange, and his varied talents had been devoted 
confidently during his whole life to the Proteftant 
caufe. But mice William's death the defire for 
peace, at any price, had gained flrengthinthe hearts 
of the patriots. The Spanim armies had never 
been commanded by a general io formidable in the 
field and fo full of refources as Alexander Farnefe, 
the Prince of Parma. His political ability was 
hardly lefs eminent ; and his mercy conciliated 
many whom the cruelties of Alva had made def- 
perate. Compared with his predeceflbrs, Parma 
may deferve praife for clemency. Aldegonde and 
other ftatefmen were willing to hope that a fimilar 
change for the better, whether it were enlighten- 
ment or kindnefs, had come over the temper of 
Philip. At the fame time they grew weary of 
expecling efficient help from abroad. The dif- 
dain and bad faith with which France had met 
their offer of fovereignty had greatly deprefTed 
them ; and thofe who w 7 ere inclined to the Eng- 
lilh alliance grew heart-flck at Elizabeth's delays. 
At length Leicefter failed, with a brilliant train 
of Englifh peers and knights. He was accom- 
panied, or followed foon afterwards, by the Earls 
of Northumberland, Oxford, and EfTex, Lords 
Sheffield, Audley, Willoughby, North, and 



Sir Philip Sidney. 169 

Burgh ; and a large force of infantry and cavalry. 
They landed at Flufhing, and Sidney efcorted 
his uncle thence to the Hague. Paffing on the 
way through the moft populous and thriving 
part of Zealand and Holland, the Englifh were 
aftonifhed at the profperous afpecl of the country, 
and ftill more at the cities, which furpafted thofe 
of their own land. The general was equally 
furprifed by the welcome with which the people 
greeted him. His progrefs refembled a triumph. 
The Dutch were now convinced that Elizabeth's 
profeflions were in earner!: ; and their own hif- 
torian fpeaks of Leicefter as having " a certain 
pleafant and winning majefty both in his counte- 
nance and fpeech,"* which gained him for a time 
unbounded popularity. On New Year's Day, 
1586, a deputation from the States propofed to 
him that he mould accept the office of abfolute 
Governor-General of the Seven United Provinces, 
Flanders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Friefland, 
Gelderland, and Zutphen. He had been forbid- 
den by the Queen's private inftructions to take 
any fuch office ; but he eagerly grafped, never- 
thelefs, at the dignities which were offered. His 
moft prudent advifers, both Englifh and Dutch, 

* Grotius, Annals. 



1 70 The Life of 

fupported him in this courfe, in ignorance of the 
limits which the Queen had afligned to him. 
The Dutch reprefented, in ftrong terms, their 
need of a fupreme governor to direct the war, 
and hold together the various ftates. Davifon, 
the able ambarTador of Elizabeth, urged the fame 
plan, and probably it was advocated by Sidney 
alfo, for the Queen afterwards threw the chief 
blame on him. Leicefter, intoxicated with am- 
bition and vanity, neglected to excufe his dif- 
obedience to her. She was juftly indignant, but 
beyond all bounds ; and, in her anger, fhe pro- 
pofed to take fuch violent meafures that Burleigh, 
though no warm friend to Leicefter, threatened 
to refign. # Eventually the Lord-Lieutenant was 
compelled to retract his pretentions, and from 
thenceforward the Dutch loft confidence in him, 
and his authority was crippled. Elizabeth had not 
only been offended by the affront to her dignity. 
She was alfo inclined, like Aldegonde and his 
party in Holland, to liften creduloufly to the 
pacific overtures by which Philip and Parma 
endeavoured to delude their adverfaries and gain 



* Motley, United Netherlands, 1. Throughout this chapter 
I have taken Mr. Motley's hiflory as my chief authority for the 
illuflration of Sidney's correfpondence. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 171 

time. Her heart was never enlifled fincerely in 
the caufe of the Dutch. Neither their rights, 
confirmed by ancient charters, nor their unparal- 
leled fufrerings, outweighed in her mind the fact 
that they were rebels in arms againfl: their fove- 
reign. Their religion was for the moil part 
Calvinift, which me regarded with extreme aver- 
sion. Their democratic constitution was alio 
difpleafing to her. Both me and Leicefter felt 
a haughty repugnance to becoming parties to con- 
tracts of ftate with citizens. Having now taken 
the decifive flep, me was dill irrefolute ; and the 
inevitable expenfe of the war almolt determined 
her to recede. 

Meanwhile the troops were ftarving. Through- 
out the winter they were infufficiently provided 
with clothes and food, and what little they had 
was chiefly at the private coil of their officers. 
The fupplies which the Queen granted, far too 
fcantily and tardily, fuffered further diminution in 
paffing through the hands of the Army Treafurer, 
Lord Norris, father of the two impetuous foldiers 
who are named in the previous letter. Sidney 
wrote to Walfmgham, — " The treafurer here pays 
our Zealand foldiers in Zealand money, which is 
five per cent, lofs to the poor foldiers, who, God 
knows, want no fuch hindrances, being fcarce able 



172 The Life of 

to keep life with their entire pay. If the com- 
modity thereof be truly anfwered the Queen, yet 
truly is it but a poor increafe to her Majefty, con- 
fidering what lofs it is to the miferable foldier. 
But if private lucre be made, it hath too hurtful 
a proportion to other abufes here." Among thefe, 
he found reafon to complain that the victuallers of 
the army availed themfelves of friendfhip with the 
officers to force cc the poor men to buy at a dearer 
rate than they might provide themfelves." One 
of them fent Sidney himfelf twelve tuns of beer, 
with a letter claiming the right to ferve him. 
" But I have refufed," he writes, cc and can afTure 
you that I am better ferved by one half by my 
own man's provifion ; now judge you, Sir, how 
poor men are dealt with." While he thus dwells 
with much fympathy upon the hardfhips and 
wrongs of the private foldiers, he fpeaks in ftrong 
terms of the fmallnefs of the force under his com- 
mand, which was quite inadequate to difcharge the 
duty entrufted to him. " For myfelf, I am in a 
garrifon as much able to command Flufhing as the 
Tower is to anfwer for London, and for aught I 
can yet learn it is hardly to be redreffed ; for the 
articles intend there muft be 5,000 kept for the 
defence of the country, befide the garrifons ; fo 
out of them, without fome ado, they may be 



Sir Philip Sidney. 173 

hardly drawn. I mean truly, if I cannot have it 
helped here, to write a protestation thereof to her 
Majefty and the Lords in the Council, as a thing 
that I can no way take on me to anfwer, if I be 
not increafed by, at the leaft, 400 men more than 
yet I have." Thefe remonftrances of Sidney's 
vexed the Queen, but otherwife had little efFect. 
Men were fent, but not money, which was moil 
urgently wanted. The newly-arrived recruits were 
feared at the gaunt and fqualid appearance of their 
comrades, and deferted in large numbers. 

Sidney's expenfes on account of his foldiers went 
far beyond his means, and involved him deeply in 
debt. A few days after landing in Zealand he was 
obliged to borrow 300/. of a Dutch money-lender; 
and he wrote two months later to the general, — 
<c I humbly befeech your Excellency, becaufe I 
know my lieutenant hath been at the feafide almoft 
this month to my great expenfe, that I may have 
either a quarter aligned me, or elfe that to this 
place they may bring fuch provision as the in- 
creafing of the number will require. For elfe, I 
being not to demand pay till they be muttered, 
nor to be muttered till my number be complete, 
it will be too heavy a burden for me to bear, who, 
I proteft to your Excellency, am fo far from de- 
firing gain, that I am willing to fpend all that I 



174 T/ie Life of 

can make; only my care is that I may be able to 
go through with it to your honour and fervice, as 
I hope in God I mall." In the midft of thefe 
anxieties we find him, as ufual, writing recom- 
mendatory letters for friends, officers, and fervants, 
Norris, Arundel, Williams, Morgan, and others, 
with the moft thoughtful intereft in their affairs. 
His care for the foldiers under him was not con- 
fined to their temporal wants. He took pains to 
educate his men, and to fee, as far as poffible, that 
the Queen's injunctions to the army were fulfilled 
by them: "that they ferved God, and demeaned 
themfelves religioufly." 

At the beginning of February, in fpite of the 
difficulties with which he had to contend, Sidney 
was urging his uncle to take active meafures againft 
the enemy. The Spaniards occupied a line which 
was not far from coinciding with the prefent 
frontier of Belgium. It advanced, however, to 
the north-eaft, and receded to the fouth-weft. 
Oftend and the whole fea-coaft to Gravelines was 
in the hands of the allies. In the oppofite direc- 
tion the Spanifh territory extended to Nimeguen 
on the Waal, and Parma threatened the neigh- 
bouring city of Grave on the Meufe. But at that 
time he was very ill prepared to carry on hoftili- 
ties. His army was reduced to fix or eight thou- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 175 

fand men, troops expert in every kind of warfare, 
but as ill fupplied as the forces which were oppofed 
to them. Parma aimed for the prefent at obtain- 
ing partial fucceffes over the Englifh, luring 
them into ambufcades by feigned furrenders. 
From the following paflage this feems to have 
been attempted at Breda. It is part of a letter 
addreffed to Leicester from Bergen-op-Zoom, 
where Sidney had a houfe. 

" I am only to befeech your Excellency, and if 
I may prevail with your Excellency to perfuade 
you, that if the journey into Frieiland be but upon 
fuch general grounds as they were when I came 
away, which may as eafily be done hereafter as 
now, that it will pleafe you to fend forces to the 
befieging of Steenberg with 2,000 of your foot- 
men, befides them that thofe quarters may fpare, 
and 300 of your horfe with them here about, I 
will undertake upon my life either to win it, or to 
make the enemy raife his liege from Grave, or, 
which I moft hope, both. And it mall be done 
in the fight of the world, which is moll; honour- 
able and profitable. For thefe matters of prac- 
tices, I arTure your Excellency they are dainty in 
refpecl of the doublenefs which almoft ever falls 
in them, and of the many impediments that fall 
in them, that if notable feafons guide not, or fpme 



176 The Life of 

worthy perfon anfwer for it, they are better omitted 
than attempted. Breda, undoubtedly, at leaft I 
think undoubtedly, was but a trap ; for our poor 
Englishmen might have been fuffered to take a 
place, which they would never have ftriven to put 
them out of, till they might have cut both them 
and us in pieces, who mould come to feize it. But 
as for Graveling, I will never flir till I have La' 
Motte himfelf, or fome principal officers of his, in 
hand. Therefore, if it pleafe your Excellency to 
let old Tutty and Read, with Sir Wm. Stanley 
and Sir Wm. Ruflell, with the 300 horfe, come 
hither, I doubt not to fend you honourable and 
comfortable news of it, for I have good under- 
standing thereof, by this mow I made, and I know 
what the enemy can do mall not ferve if this may 
be done, — 500 pioneers with munition and victual 
according, — muft be done ; and if God will, I 
will do you honour in it. It grieves me very 
much, the foldiers are fo hardly dealt with in your 
firft beginning of government, not only in their 
pays, but in taking booties from them, as by your 
Excellency's letters I find. When foldiers begin to 
defpair and to give up towns, then it is late to buy 
that with hundred thoufands which might have 
been faved with a trifle." 

The attempt upon Steenberg was not carried 



Sir Philip Sidney, 177 

out, owing, it is faid, to a fudden thaw. A fortnight 
later Sidney writes again to the general : — cc The 
enemy ftirs on every fide, and your fide muft not 
be idle ; for if it be, it quickly lofeth reputation. 
I befeech your Excellency not to be difcouraged 
with the Queen's difcontentments, for, the event 
being anything good, your glory will mine through 
thefe mitts : only, if it pleafe you, to have daily 
counfel taken of your means, how to increafe 
them, and how to hufband them ; and when all is 
faid, if they can ferve, you fhall make a noble war ; 
if not, the peace is in your hand, as I find well by 
Aldegonde, of whom I keep a good opinion and 
yet a fufpicious eye." In this and fimilar paffages 
he betrays unconfcioufly his own fitnefs for a 
higher command. He prays earneftly in the fame 
letter that the young Count Maurice of NafTau 
may be fent to Flufhing, with ample authority for 
the redrefs of peculation and other abufes. — cc I 
am fure he would hear advice, and I am perfuaded 
together we mould do you fervices of importance. 
For divers things come in my way, which becaufe 
they belong not indeed to my charge, I am fain 
to let pafs. . . . There is with your Excellency 
Colonel Piron, one that hath ferved as well as any 
man in thefe parts, indeed, a moft valiant man, 
and of better judgment than utterance. He and 

N 



1 78 The Life of 

I have enterprifes to be done upon Flanders fide 
of good importance : I befeech your Excellency 
to difpatch him away; it mail, I hope, turn to 
your fervice. ... I am in great hope to light 
upon fome good occafions to do you honour and 
fervice. The enterprifes are {till hopeful, but not 
yet full ripe, which till they be, it were able to mar 
all if I mould be far abfent. . . I will haften, as 
foon as I can poffibly, to your Excellency, when I 
have but a little fettled the matters of thefe parts, 
efpecially of my regiment, over whom fince it hath 
pleafed your Excellency to appoint me, and that 
they are moft joyful of it, if ever I may deferve 
anything of you, I humbly befeech you that they 
may find themfelves fo much the more tendered." 
Leicester had given to him the colonelcy of the 
Zealand regiment of horfe ; an appointment which, 
popular as it was among the foldiers, did not pafs 
without remonftrance. Some of the veteran Dutch 
officers complained at being overlooked in favour 
of a young foreigner, who, whatever his merits, 
had not yet earned promotion by fervice in the 
field. With lefs juftice, a petition againft the 
nomination of foreigners was mitigated by Count 
Hohenlohe, or Hollock, as his name was written 
by the Englifh, a German nobleman. Sidney 
gave the following account of this to Davifon, who 
had returned to England : — 



Sir Philip Siditey, 179 

cc Upon my having the Zealand regiment, which 
you know was more your p'erfuafion than any de- 
fire in me, the Count Hollock caufed a many- 
handed fupplication to be made, that no ftranger 
might have any regiment, but prefently after, with 
all the fame hands, protefted they meant it not 
by me, to whom they wifried all honour, &c. 
The Count Maurice mowed himfelf conftantly 
kind to me therein, but Mr. Paul Buys* hath too 
many Buries in his head, fuch as you mail find he 
will be to God and man about one pitch: happy 
is the conjunction with them that join in the fear 
of God. Medekirk far mines above him in all 
matters of counfel and faithful dealing. I pray 
you write to me, and love me and farewell. At 
Flufhing, where I thank God all is well, and my 
garrifon in good order. This 24th of Feb. 1586." 

Hohenlohe had ferved for feveral years as 
lieutenant-general to the Princes of Orange, with 
whom he was remotely connected by marriage. 
He was a recklefs cavalier, capable of romantic 
courage and generofity, but profligate, violent, 
and a drunkard. In all things intemperate, he 

* Paul Buys was one of the moft able of the Dutch ftatef- 
men; but of bad private character, and recently oppofed to 
Leicefter. 



1 80 The Ltfe of 

was a dangerous ally ; apt to be more hurtful than 
profitable to the caufe which he ferved, as in the 
fiege of Antwerp, where, after nearly refcuing the 
city by his valour, his folly precipitated the fur- 
render. Such being his character, there was good 
reafon for omitting to give him the Zealand regi- 
ment, which he defired for himfelf ; but the Queen 
took his part againrt Sidney, whofe outfpoken 
complaints of the neglect of the foldiers had put 
him quite out of her favour. Thereupon Hohen- 
lohe regarded Leicester as his enemy, and a ferious 
quarrel was likely to have enfued. Their recon- 
ciliation was due to Sidney, whofe genius and 
winning manners made the deeper! impreflion on 
the fiery German, and feem to have exercifed a 
kind of fafcination over him. Notwithstanding 
this and other caufes of variance, his regard for 
Sidney continued, and was afterwards fignally 
proved. 

As Flufhing lay on the utmort verge of the feat 
of war, Sidney pafTed much of his time at Bergen- 
op-Zoom, on the mainland. He propofed to fend 
for his wife thither, but was difTatisfied at the con- 
duct of the war, and meditated fome independent 
plan in which, whatever it may have been, Lady 
Sidney could not have accompanied him. He 
wrote thus to his father-in-law from Utrecht, 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 8 1 

having apparently gone to vifit Leicefter, as he 
propofed in a previous letter : — 

cc Right Honourable, 
" I receive divers letters from you, full of the 
difcomfort which I fee, and am forry to fee, that 
you daily meet with at home : and I think, fuch 
is the good will it pleafeth you to bear me, that 
my part of the trouble is fomething that troubles 
you ; but I befeech you let it not. I had before 
carl: my count of danger, want, and difgrace: and, 
before God, Sir, it is true in my heart, the love of 
the caufe doth fo far overbalance them all, that, 
with God's grace, they mail never make me weary 
of my refolution. If her Majefty were the foun- 
tain, I would fear, confidering what we daily find, 
that we mould wax dry ; but me is but a means 
whom God ufeth, and I know not whether I am 
deceived, but I am faithfully perfuaded, that if 
ihe mould withdraw herfelf, other fprings would 
rife to help this action ; for methinks I fee the 
great work indeed in hand againft the abufers of 
the world, wherein it is no greater fault to have 
confidence in man's power, than it is too haftily to 
defpair of God's work. I think a wife and con- 
ftant man ought never to grieve while he doth 
play, as a man may fay, his own part truly, tho' 



1 82 .: The Life of 

others be out ; but if himfelf leave his hold becaufe 
other mariners will be idle, he will hardly forgive 
himfelf his own fault. For me, I cannot promife 
of my own courfe, ..... becaufe I know that 
there is a higher power that muft uphold me, or 
elfe I mall fall ; but certainly I truft I mall not 
by other men's wants be drawn from myfelf ; 
therefore, good Sir, to whom for my particular I 
am more bound than to all men beftdes, be not 
troubled with my troubles, for I have feen the 
worft, in my judgment, beforehand, and worfe 
than that cannot be. 

" If the Queen pay not her foldiers me muft 
lofe her garrifons ; there is no doubt thereof; but 
no man living mail fay the fault is in me. What 
relief I can do them, I will. I will fpare no danger, 
if occafion ferves. I am fure no creature mall be 
able to lay injuftice to my charge, and for farther 
doubts, truly I ftand not upon them. I have 
written by Adams to the Council plainly, and 
therefore let them determine.* It hath been a 
coftly beginning unto me this war, becaufe I had 

* In fubfequent letters Sidney complains bitterly to Wal- 
fingham of the want of fupplies from home. He had previ- 
oufly difcovered great inefficiency in the Ordnance Department, 
for which Burleigh was cenfured by the Queen. Bourne, 
Memoir, pp. 447, 500-502. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 183 

nothing proportioned unto it; my fervants unex- 
perienced, and myfelf every way unfurnimed ; but 
hereafter, if the war mall continue, I mail pafs 
much better through with it. For Bergen-op- 
Zoom, I delighted in it, I confefs, becaufe it was 
near the enemy; but efpecially having a very fair 
houfe in it, and an excellent air, I deftined it for 
my wife ; but, finding how you deal there, and 
that ill payment in my abfence thence might bring 
forth fome mifchief, and confidering how apt the 
Queen is to interpret everything to my difadvan- 
tage, I have refigned it to my Lord Willoughby, 
my very friend, and indeed a valiant and frank 
gentleman, and fit for that place: therefore, I pray, 
you know that fo much of my regality is fallen. 
I underftand I am called very ambitious and proud 
at home; but certainly if they knew my heart they 
would not altogether fo judge me, I wrote to you 
a letter by Will, my Lord of Leicefter's jefting 
player, enclofed in a letter to my wife, and I never 
had anfvver thereof. It contained fomething to 
my Lord of Leicefter's, and counfel that fome way 
might be taken to ftay my Lady there. I fince 
divers times have writ, to know whether you have 
received them, but you never anfwered me that 
point. I fince find that the knave delivered the 
letters to my Lady of Leicefter, but whether me 



1 84 The Life of 

fent them you or no I know not, but earneftly 
defire to do, becaufe I doubt there is more inter- 
preted thereof. .... We fhall have a fore war 
upon us this fummer, wherein if appointment had 
been kept, and thefe difgraces forborne, which 
have greatly weakened us, we had been victorious. 
I can fay no more at this time, but pray for your 
long and happy life. At Utrecht, this 24th of 
March, 1586. 

Cf Your humble fon, 

" Philip Sidney. 

" I know not what to fay to my wife's coming 
till you refolve better ; for if you run a ftrange 
courfe, I may take fuch a one here as will not be 
fit for any of the feminine gender.* I pray you 
make much of Nichol-Gery. I have been vilely 
deceived for armours for horfemen ; if you could 
fpeedily fpare me any out of your armoury, I will 
fend them you back as foon as my own be finifhed. 
There was never fo good a father found a more 
troublefome fon. Send Sir Wm. Pelham, good 
Sir, and let him have Clerk's place, for we need 
no clerks, and it is moil necefiary to have fuch a 
one in the council," 

* In a letter dated Utrecht, June 28, Sidney wrote to his 
father-in-law, " I am prefently going towards Flufhing, where 
I hear that your daughter is very well and merry." Bourne, 
p. 490. Lady Sidney had therefore arrived in the interval. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 185 

It appears from this letter that there was Tome 
foundation for a rumour, which had ftrongly ex- 
cited Elizabeth's jealoufy, that Lady Leieefter was 
about to join her hufband, and hold with him a 
fort of Court at the Hague. Her anger had fince 
been appeafed by a humble and fupplicatory letter 
from him ; but it was well that the Countefs's 
vifit did not take place. Another particular which 
is worth obferving in this letter is the name of 
the bearer of Sidney's previous packet to his wife. 
<c Will, my Lord of Leicefter's jefting player/' 
was, in all probability, one of the company of 
actors to which William Shakefpeare belonged ; 
for they were licenfed under the title of the Earl 
of Leicester's fervants. Nothing is known of this 
period of Shakefpeare's life to make it unlikely 
that he mould have been in Holland with Sidney. 
Such an incident would have brought the poet in 
fight of the cliff at Dover, which he has defcribed 
fo vividly, and might alfo have given rife to the 
friendfhip which he had afterwards with Sidney's 
nephew Lord Herbert. But there were two other 
players of the fame name Will in the company ; 
Johnfon and Kemp. The latter, who was famous 
as a jefter, fits the defcription beft. In any cafe, 
the term cc knave," applied to a young man of 
humble rank, would convey no reproach. The re- 
ciprocal entertainments of Leicefter and the Dutch 



i86 The Life of 

at the Hague, Amfterdam, and Utrecht, permit the 
conjecture that the Earl's company attended him, 
and performed in mafques and pantomimes. 

The allied army, which had been idle too long, 
now commenced active hoftilities. Leicefter fent 
a force to the relief of Grave under John Norris, 
the ableft, according to Parma, of the Englifh 
captains, and Count Hohenlohe. The expedition 
was completely fuccefsful. A Spanifh detachment, 
which was fent to intercept the relieving army, 
was defeated after a fharp engagement, and 500 
men, with provifions for a year, were thrown into 
the city. The Englifh troops had at firft wavered, 
and many of them fled, but their final victory 
made more than amends. Leicefter was thereupon 
extravagantly elated. The time which mould 
Jiave been ufed in improving his advantage was 
wafted in rejoicings. St. George's day was kept 
at Utrecht, with a feries of feafts and pageants, of 
which the general was fonder than the Queen 
herfelf. In the meantime Parma prefTed the fiege 
of Grave. Hemart, the governor, overcome by 
the entreaties of the women, capitulated after a 
fhort reftftance. Leicefter was enraged at this 
refult of his own fupinenefs, and putting the 
harfheft conftruction on the young officer's mis- 
conduct, beheaded him with two of his lieutenants. 



Sir Philip Sidney. i 87 

Sidney was now returned to Flufhing, having 
pafTed fome time with the camp at Nimeguen. 
He was bufily engaged in concerting with Mau- 
rice of NafTau one of the projects which he had 
meditated before. Although Maurice was only 
nineteen years of age, he already gave indications, 
to Sidney's difcerning eye, of that rare military 
genius which afterwards made him the moil per- 
fect general of his time. They propofed to 
attempt the furprife of Axel, a city in Flanders, 
nearly opposite Flufhing. It was a ftrongly 
fortified place, commanding the dykes which pro- 
tected a wide range of country to the fouth, below 
the level of the fea. Maurice wrote in June to 
the general explaining the fcheme, which he de- 
fired to be kept fecret from every one but Sidney. 
He appears to have received overtures from fome 
of the citizens, and to have proceeded very cau- 
tioufly, for fear of falling into a trap laid for him 
by the Spaniards. On the night of the 6th of 
July, 500 of the Zealand regiment under Sidney 
rowed acrofs the Scheld, accompanied by 500 
Englifh from Bergen-op-Zoom under Lord Wil- 
loughby. On the oppofite fhore they were joined 
by Maurice and Colonel Piron, the fame whofe 
fervices had been fpecially defired by Sidney for 
afii fiance in an enterprife upon the Flanders fide 



v 



1 88 the Life of 

five months before. Maurice, as governor of 
Holland and Zealand, bore the chief command 
in the combined force ; but the actual direction 
was entrufted to Sidney. He is defcribed in 
Stow's Chronicle as addrefling his men at the 
diftance of a mile from the town, in an oration 
which refts on the authority of one who ferved 
in the war, though it has an apparent colour of 
historical fiction. Something he may have faid, 
which is amplified to this effect : The caufe they 
had was God's caufe, under and for whom they 
fought for her Majefly, whofe goodnefs to them 
he did not need to mow. They were fighting 
againft men of falfe religion, enemies to God and 
His Church, againft Antichrift, and againft a 
people whofe unkindnefs, both in nature and in 
life, was fo extreme that God would not leave 
them unpunifhed. As Englifhmen, whofe valour 
the world feared and commended, they fhould 
not fear death nor any peril whatever, both for 
the fervice which they owed to their Sovereign, 
and for their country's honour and their own. 
He promifed that no man fhould do any fervice 
worth the noting, but he himfelf would fpeak to 
the uttermoft to prefer him to his wifhed purpofe. 
" Which oration of his," fays the Chronicle, 
" did fo link the mind of the people, that they 



Sir Philip Sidney. 189 

chofe rather to die in that fervice, than to live 
in the contrary." # They arrived at Axel at 
two in the morning, marching with great order 
and filence. The moat was deep ; but feveral 
foldiers plunged into the water with ladders, and 
having fcaled the wall, opened the gates to their 
comrades. The garrifon, though completely 
taken by furprife, were aroufed before half the 
invaders could enter, and refifted defperately. 
Moft of them were flain, and the reft put to 
flight. Axel was captured, with five of the 
enemy's enfigns and a rich booty, without the 
lofs of a fingle life to the allies. Sidney pofted 
a band of picked men in the market-place for a 
rallying-point in cafe of a frefh attack ; while 
parties marched up and down taking precautions 
to fecure the city. He liberally rewarded, out 
of his own purfe, the foldiers who had diftin- 
guifhed themfelves, and returned, leaving Colonel 
Piron and 800 men as a garrifon. Four neigh- 
bouring forts were obliged to furrenderj and 
Maurice proceeded to cut the dykes, by which, 
at the next change of wind, a wide extent of the 
moft fertile land in Flanders, the Pays de Waes, 
was laid under water. Mondragon, a Spanifh 

* Archer, Continuation of Stow, p. 733. 



190 The Life of 

officer of eminent hardihood and fkill, was in the 
neighbourhood, but unable to prevent this cataf- 
trophe. The military fuccefs of the expedition 
was complete, and was generally afcribed to Sid- 
ney's conduct. Languet had once told him that 
he feared his difpofition would prove too gentle 
for a commander, and that he would not be fevere 
enough in difcipline. Neceftity had, however, 
braced his energies. His firmnefs could not have 
been tefted more thoroughly than in this night- 
attack, which was executed on unknown ground, 
with forces of different nations, and for the moft 
part unpractifed in war. 

While the reft of the army, lately difheartened 
at the lofs of Grave, were rejoicing idly at 
the capture of Axel, another adventure of a 
iimilar kind offered itfelf to Sidney. It has been 
already feen from his correfpondence that infor- 
mation had reached him of the wiliingnefs of a 
party in Gravelines to give up the town. He 
now heard that La Motte, the governor, would 
furrender if he appeared in fufficient force. From 
his knowledge of La Motte he fufpected a ftrata- 
gem. But the foldiers, flufhed with fuccefs, were 
impatient to add to their laurels, and preffed him 
urgently to let them go, his lieutenant, Sir William 
Brown, being one of t*he moft importunate. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 191 

Sidney yielded fo far as to land within a fhort 
diftance of Gravelines, and permitted a party 
which had volunteered to attempt the town, 
under a promife that they fhould furrender with- 
out a ufelefs fight, if they found themfelves in an 
ambufcade. The volunteers chofe their leader 
by throwing dice upon a drum-head, and the lot 
fell upon Sir William Brown. What Sidney 
had anticipated took place. Brown and his 
companions found themfelves entrapped by the 
Spaniards, who opened an irrefiftible fire from 
furrounding windows and cellars. A few of the 
Englifh efcaped : others furrendered : a few were 
killed. But, by Sidney's caution, what might 
have been a ferious difafter was averted.* 

Summer was now far advanced, and the general- 
in-chief had done little but make preparations for 
taking the field. On the other fide, Parma, with 
inferior numbers, had ftruck many fevere blows. 
Since his capture of Grave he had compelled the 
important town of Venlo to furrender, and fub- 
fequently ftormed Nuys on the Rhine, which was 
facked and burned with horrible carnage. He 
was now laying fiege to Rheinberg, and Leicester 
proceeded to its defence with his whole army. 

* Brooke, 135-139- 



192 The Life of 

Yet the Englifh general ftill hefitated to give battle 
to his redoubtable adverfary, and chofe rather to 
attack Zutphen, judging rightly that Parma would 
come to the fuccour of that city, and raife the fiege 
of Rheinberg. It was evident that for fome time 
to come the chief fcene of action would be in thofe 
parts; Sidney, therefore, left Flufhing to join his 
uncle. On his journey he pafTed through Ger- 
truydenberg, where Hohenlohe's quarters were. 
He found the Count newly returned from a foray 
with a large party of Englifh gentlemen, and 
among the reft, Sir William Pelham, marfhal of 
the camp, an officer of great experience and valour, 
whofe arrival had been anxioufly expecled by Sid- 
ney. They all fupped together at Hohenlohe's, 
who, as his habit was, drank deeply. Sidney had 
brought with him Edward Norris, in ignorance of 
the ill-will which was borne to the family of Norris 
by feveral of the company, including the Count 
and Pelham. According to the prevalent fafhion, 
Pelham challenged Norris to drink with him a 
large goblet of wine ; apparently with no friendly 
intention, but in order to make him drunk. The 
young man excufed himfelf on the plea of ill 
health, but reluctantly complied fo far as to drain 
one cup. Sir William then challenged him to 
another. Angry words followed, in which Hohen- 



Sir Philip Sidney. 193 

lohe joined with coarfe ridicule. Norris, who bore 
the general character of being hot-tempered and 
arrogant, behaved on this occasion with much felf- 
control. He profefled his refpect for the years 
and military distinction of Pelham, who began to 
relent towards him, with the variable humour of 
a man half intoxicated. Sidney feized the oppor- 
tunity to make peace; and the quarrel was blow- 
ing over, when Hohenlohe filently flung the gilt 
cover of a vafe at Norris, and cut his forehead 
open. Norris fell back, and the Count ftepped 
forward with his dagger drawn to kill him ; but 
Sidney threw his arms round Hohenlohe, and, with 
the help of fome others of the company, dragged 
him out of the room. 

This brutal fcene, of which the particulars have 
lately been publifhed by Mr. Motley, from a MS. 
in the State Paper Office, illuftrates vividly but pain- 
fully the manners of the time among thofe with 
whom Sidney's life was pafTed. Such exceffes may 
have been rare,- but it is evident that the tone of 
fociety did not give any fecurity againft them. 
The guefts at this fupper were no vulgar brawlers, 
but fome of the mod illuftrious noblemen and 
gentlemen of both countries. It is not wonder- 
ful that when outrages fo violent were poflible 
among counts and earls, the beft men mould infift 

o 



194 The Life of 

fuperftitioufly on military honour, and magnify the 
laws of chivalry. But it would be a great error 
to judge of thofe rough warriors merely by the 
particulars in which their behaviour is unfit to 
compare with that of our own day. Manners, 
though they are the mofl obvious characteriftics 
of a nation or an individual, are alfo the moft 
Superficial. They are the laft points to be affected 
by true civilization, the progrefs of which is from 
the heart outwards to the demeanour and language, 
and the eafe with which they are imitated makes 
them very fallacious as a fign of real worth. 
Viewed apart from the prejudice which their 
coarfenefs of behaviour and fpeech excites, the 
gentlemen of Elizabeth's day were, as a clafs, 
worthy rivals of the beffc which fubfequent gene- 
rations have feen; whether we regard their Chris- 
tian faith, their public fpirit, their intellectual 
vigour and culture, or their franknefs and courtefy 
of heart. Of the vice of intemperance it is afTerted 
by an old writer * that it firft became general in 
England through thefe wars, being learned from 
the Dutch and Germans in the moift climate of 
the Netherlands. It is probably with reafon that 
Sidney's friends claim for him a large fhare in 

* Camden ; quoted by Zouch, p. 242. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 195 

leading the fafhion, both of the Court and of the 
camp, to purer and nobler pleafures. The next 
reign exhibited a ftrange rivalry between literature 
and philofophy, in their brighter!; fplendour, on 
the one hand ; and, on the other, the infamy of 
drunkennefs among the higheit Court ladies. 

Edward Norris efcaped from Gertruydenberg, 
where his life was hardly fafe among the foldiers 
of Hohenlohe, and fent him a challenge to mortal 
combat foon afterwards. The mefTage was borne 
by Sidney, who expofed himfelf to fome peril in 
{landing forth almoft alone as Norris's friend. 
But the duel never took place, being postponed 
by the rapid fuccerlion of events. On Auguft 
28th, Leicester held a review of his army, which 
amounted to 5,000 Englifh and Irifh infantry and 
1,400 cavalry, befides about 2,000 Dutch and 
German troops. Two days later he inverted 
Doefburg, a place of moderate ftrength, which lay 
upon the road to Zutphen. The Englifh leaders 
were all prefent. Sir William Peiham directed 
the fiege operations, and received a wound, which, 
for a few days, was thought dangerous. Sir John 
Norris, who had been recently knighted for his 
conduct in the relief of Grave, commanded the 
infantry, The highfpirited young Earl of EfTex, 
though a boy in years, was in command of the 



196 The Life of 

cavalry. He now ferved in the flege as a volun- 
teer. Sir Thomas Cecil, the governor of Brill, 
had left his fecure poft, like Sidney, to mare in 
the dangers and glory of the field. Sidney's 
brother Robert was alfo prefent, as he had been 
wherever he could meet the enemy. His conduct 
was worthy of his kindred, and earned him the 
fpurs of knighthood fhortly afterwards. The 
allies opened fire with nine or ten pieces of 
ordnance, and foon had made tw T o breaches, prac- 
ticable for aflault. Hohenlohe led one party, Sir 
John Norris the other; and they were both on the 
point of advancing to the attack when Doefburg 
furrendered. The garrifon ftipulated only for 
their own lives, and left the city at Leicefter's 
difpofal. Orders were given that the property of 
the citizens mould be refpecled, and that no one 
mould be fubject to ill ufage; yet EfTex and other, 
chief officers were compelled to interfere with blows 
to flop the foldiers from facking the town. The 
troops of England in the Netherlands had long 
before this time acquired a fhameful notoriety for 
plunder and infubordination.* 

From Doefburg to Zutphen is about a day's 
march. Leicester advanced without lofs of time, 

* Languet's Letters. Pears, p. 176. 



Sir Philip Sidney, igj 

and took up positions for the fiege of the latter 
place, the capital of the ancient county of Zut- 
phen. It was a well-built and ftrongly-fortifled 
city, on the right bank of the YfTel, which there 
flows northward, in a broad ftream, through a plain 
of feemingly boundlefs extent. The allied army 
began to entrench themfelves on both fides of the 
river. On the right fide, a hill in a commanding 
fituation was occupied by Sir John Norris, with 
whom were Count Lewis William of Nafi'au and Sid- 
ney. The general himfelf crofTed over by a bridge 
of boats which he had constructed, and prepared to 
attack fome ftrong fconces or outworks, on the left 
bank, which formed a material defence of the city. 
While the allied army was engaged in throwing 
up entrenchments, the Prince of Parma, having 
raifed the fiege of Rheinberg, came in hafte to 
reconnoitre their pofition. By pafiing clofe under 
a fort which Leicefter had abandoned immediately 
before, he fucceeded in entering Zutphen. His 
firft thought was to remain and defend the city 
himfelf, for he faw that the allied pofitions were 
very ftrong. Yielding, it is faid,* to the con- 
fidence exprefied by his lieutenant Verdugo, he 
left him in command ; but took meafures to re- 

* Scrada. 



i 9 8 The Life of 

lieve Zutphen at once by fending a large convoy 
of wheat and other fupplies. Provifions were 
collected with the utmoft rapidity and fecrefy. 
Only one road, however, was practicable for con- 
veying them, and that lay not far to the eaft of 
Sir John Norris's camp. Parma was not able to 
conceal his vaft preparations altogether ; and 
Leicefter received intelligence of the time when 
the fupplies were to be expected. He gave orders 
accordingly to Sir William Stanley, with 300 pike- 
men, and Sir John Norris, with 200 horfe, to 
intercept the convoy on its road. 

On the morning of the 22nd of September 
they ftarted before daybreak for the little village 
of Warnsfeld, about a mile from the city. The 
expedition was joined by about fifty volunteers, 
the flower of the Engliiri army, who galloped, 
unawares to the general, to take part in the ex- 
pected fkirmifh. Among thefe were ErTex, Aud- 
ley, Willoughby, Pelham, RurTell, and the two 
Sidneys, with their efquires. When the horfemen, 
who had prefTed forward in advance, arrived at 
the village, there was fo thick a fog that a man 
could not befeen ten paces off. They hadnofcouts, 
and were quite ignorant of the enemy's ftrength. 
Prefently they heard the found of the waggons ap- 
proaching ; and on a fudden the fog cleared away, 



Sir Philip Sidney. 1 99 

and ifhowed them a Spanifh army lining both fides 
of the road, and intrenched in the churchyard of 
Warnsfeld. The enemy was about 3000 ftrong, 
according to the report which Parma gave after- 
wards to the king of Spain. They were a mixed 
force of Spaniards, Italians, and Albanians, under 
the command of the Marquis of Guafto, who was 
in front, fupported by many diftinguifhed noble- 
men and captains, at the head of a fquadron of 
mounted arquebufiers. It was evident that the 
Englifh had fallen themfelves into an ambufcade 
in the act of laying one. Retreat was ftill pof- 
fible ; but they did not hefitate to attack the over- 
whelming numbers oppofed them. EfTex cried, 
" For the honour of England, my fellows, follow 
me," and rode forward at a gallop. Sidney and 
the others accompanied him, and charged with 
lance in reft. Then, throwing afide their lances, 
they took to their curtle-axes, and plied them fo 
furioufly that the enemy's horfe fell back, and 
rallied behind the line of pikemen. The brave 
Lord Willoughby, whofe cc ftout behaviour," and 
" courage fierce and fell," is the theme of a ftir- 
ri ng old Englifh ballad, overthrew the leader of 
the Albanian cavalry, and dafhing on, without 
paufing to accept his furrender, found himfelf 
alone in the midft of the enemy. Some of them 



200 The Life of 

caught hold of his trappings, and tore them off 
in the effort to take him prifoner ; in which they 
would have fucceeded, had not Sidney and others 
come to the refcue. Many more fuch instances 
of recklefs valour are related. Sir William Perrott, 
a reputed grandfon of King Henry VIII, killed 
in fingle combat Count Hannibal Gonzaga, the 
commander of the Italians. Lord North, who 
had been invalided with a wound in the leg, rofe 
from his bed to join the battle, with only one 
boot on. The fight refembled in character the 
brilliant and difaftrous fkirmifli of Balaklava in 
our own day. It was a magnificent difplay of 
courage, which had been long pent up in forced 
inaction, and was now exhibited in a manner con- 
trary to the fcience of war. Again and again the 
Englifh cavalry broke through their adverfaries' 
line, only to find beyond them an army drawn 
up in pofition, and to receive volleys of mufketry, 
and even of cannon ; for the battle extended 
within range of the guns of Zutphen. 

Sidney had been warned by Languet, in cafe 
he fhould go into the Netherlands, to beware of 
this very reckleffnefs. f c Do not," faid his friend, 
in a letter written eight years before, fC give the 
glorious name of courage to a fault which only 
feems to have fomething in common with it. It 



Sir Philip Sidney. 201 

is the folly of our age, that moft men of high 
birth think it more honourable to do the work 
of a foldier than of a leader, and would rather 
earn a name for boldnefs than for judgment. 
Hence in our countries we can fcarcely find a vete- 
ran commander, and this is owing fimply to our 
rafhnefs." Languet's cenfure was applicable to 
the conduct of the whole body of Englim knights 
on this day, but peculiarly to that of Sidney him- 
fdf. He had come to the fight without leave,; 
and holding no command, his fquadron of horfe 
having been fent to guard the city of Deventer. 
On his way to the field he had met Sir William 
Pelham, recovered from his wound, and finding 
him, as it happened, without leg armour, had 
caft afide his own cuifTes in a fit of romantic 
emulation. Thus unprotected, he charged with 
EfTex, Willoughby, and the reft ; and his be- 
haviour, confpicuous even among fo many heroes, 
excited the admiration both of friends and foes. 
At the fecond charge his horfe was mot under 
him ; but he immediately mounted another, and 
was again in the thickeft of the battle. In the 
next encounter he charged right through the 
enemy's ranks, and came upon their entrench- 
ments. At that moment a mufket-ball hit him 
on the thigh, a little above the knee, where he 
fhould have been defended by the cuifTes which 



202 The Life of 

he had taken off. The ball mattered the bone, 
inflicting a hideous wound, and penetrated up- 
wards into his leg. Yet Sidney endeavoured to 
charge once more. His horfe, however, was 
reftive, and unaccuftomed to his rider, who was 
unable now to manage him. Unwillingly, he 
returned to the camp, a mile and a-half diftant, 
fuffering intenfe pain, but refufing the aid of the 
fquire who offered to lead his horfe. 

It was on his way that the incident occurred 
which more than any other is affociated with his 
name. We may befb repeat the often-quoted 
words in which Lord Brooke has defcribed his 
friend's gentle charity : — fC Paffmg along the reft 
of the army where his uncle the general was, and 
being thirfty with excefs of bleeding, he called 
for drink, which was prefently brought him ; but 
as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he 
faw a foot-foldier carried along, who had eaten 
his laft at the fame feaft, ghaftly cafting up his 
eyes at the bottle ; which Sir Philip perceiving, 
took it from his head before he drank, and de- 
livered it to the poor man, with thefe words, 
Thy neceffity is yet greater than mine." The foldier 
having drunk, Sidney pledged him in the re- 
mainder of the draught.* 

* Brooke, 146. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 203 

He was met by his uncle, who had crofTed the 
river to obferve the engagement, with a large 
force. " O Philip !" cried Leicefter, " I am forry 
to fee thy hurt." " O my lord I" he anfwered, 
" this have I done to do you honour, and her 
Majefty fome fervice." Then Sir William Ruf- 
fell came up bloody from the fight, where he had 
been wielding his curtle-axe to the wonder and 
terror of the enemy. At the fight of Sidney's 
condition he wept like a child, exclaiming, " O 
noble Sir Philip I there was never man attained 
hurt more honourably than you have done, nor 
any ferved like unto you." Sidney faid with 
refignation, " God directed the bullet ;" and he 
bade the furgeons probe his wound without delay, 
and thoroughly, while he had ftill ftrength to 
bear the pain. They were unable to extract the 
bullet, but they fet the bone ; and he was fent in 
a precarious ftate to Arnheim, where Leicefter 
had lately refided. The Earl wrote to England 
on the following day, " How God will difpofe of 
him, I know not, but fear I muft needs greatly 
the worft ; the blow in fo dangerous a place and 
fo great ; yet did I never hear of any man that 
did abide the dreffing and fetting his bones better 
than he did, and he was carried afterwards in my 
barge to Arnheim, and I hear this day he is ftill 



204 The Life of 

of good heart, and comforteth all about him as 
much as may be. God of His mercy grant him 
his life, which I cannot but doubt of greatly. I 
was abroad at that time in the field, giving fome 
order to fupply that bufinefs, which did endure 
almoft two hours in continual fight, and meeting 
Philip coming upon his horfe-back, not a little to 
my grief. But I would you had ftood by to hear 
his moft loyal fpeeches to her Majefty ; his con- 
ftant mind to the caufe, his loving care over me, 
and his moft refolute determination for death, 
not a jot appalled for his blow, which is the moil 
grievous that ever I faw with fuch a bullet; 
riding fo long, a mile and a-half, upon his horfe, 
ere he came to the camp ; not ceafing to fpeak 
ftill of her Majefty ; being glad if his hurt and 
death might any way honour her : for hers he 
was whilft he lived, and God's he was fure to be 
if he died ; praying all men to think that the caufe 
was as well her Majefty's as the country's ; and 
not to be difcouraged, c for you have feen fuch 
fuccefs as may encourage us all ; and this my 
hurt is the ordinance of God by the hap of the 
war.' " 

Sidney's fatal wound has made the battle of 
Zutphen more celebrated than it would otherwife 
have been. It was an indecifive engagement of 






Sir Philip Sidney. 205 

lefs than two hours, in which, while much glory- 
was won by the Englifh, the real advantage re- 
mained with the enemy. Leicester hefitated to 
give orders for a general advance of his army ; 
and the detachment, unfupported, was unable to 
hinder Parma's fupplies and reinforcements from 
entering the city. The Spanifh mufketeers made 
their way on gradually, leading the waggon horfes 
as they fought ; and thus, as their own hiftorian 
defcribes,* like a boat rowing hard into port 
againft the wind, with fluctuating progrefs they 
accomplifhed their purpofe. Yet the battle was 
long remembered as one of extraordinary fierce- 
nefs. Its effect was greatly to abate the dread 
in which the Spaniards were held. A fplendid 
proof had been given that they were not invin- 
cible. Three fucceffive times the Englifh knights 
had charged and broken a body which is efti- 
mated at fivefold their own number. Several of 
the chief captains on the Spanifh fide had fallen, 
and the Marquis of Guafto narrowly efcaped with 
his life. Nor was the battle without other fpecial 
circumftances of interefl. George Crefcia, the 
Albanian chief, who had been unhorfed by Lord 
Willoughby, yielded himfelf his prifoner volun- 

* Strada. 



206 The Life of 

tarily, after refuting to furrender to any other. 
Sir John Norris, who had quarrelled with Sir 
William Stanley, cried, <c Let us be friends to- 
gether this day, and die fide by fide, if need be, 
in her Majefty's caufe ;" and Stanley anfwered, 
cc Living or dying, I will ftand or lie by you in 
friendfhip." 




Sir Philip Sidney, 



Chapter VII, 



SIDNEY S DEATH, 



207 




" What hath he loft, that fuch great grace hath won ? 
Young years for endlefs years, and hope unfure 
Of fortune's gifts, for wealth that Hill fhall dure. 
O happy race, with fo great praifes run !" 

Sir Walter Raleigh. 




N extreme danger, but in good heart, 
Sidney was conveyed in Leicefter's 
barge to Arnheim, paft burnt villages, 
ruined abbeys, and devaftated plains. 
The fituation of the city was healthy and pleafant, 
on the banks of the Rhine, in what is called the 
Paradife of Holland, though now, through the 
ravages of war, wearing another afpect. There 
he was joined by his wife, who had crofTed over 
to the Netherlands, not long after his letter to 
Walfingham of March 24. She nurfed him 
anxioufly, with affiduous watchfulnefs, which 



2o8 The Life of 

indeed his wound required. Her comfort was 
the more neceffary, as his illnefs was aggravated 
-by grief of mind. He was mourning for the 
recent lofs of both his parents. Sir Henry Sidney 
had died at Ludlow in the previous May, bearing 
with him to the grave the refpect of all who knew 
him. Three months later his widow breathed 
her Ian 1 , dying in the fame gentle and Chriftian 
fpirit in which Hie had lived. cc During the 
whole courfe of her ficknefs, and efpecially a little 
before it pleafed God to call her to His mercy, 
fhe ufed fuch godly fpeeches, earneft and effectual 
perfuafives to all about her .... as inwardly 
pierced the hearts of many that heard her. 
Though they before knew her to exceed moft of 
her fex in lingular virtue and quality, good fpeech, 
apt and ready conception, excellency of wit, and 
notable delivery, yet her difcourfe then amazed 
and aftonifhed the hearers."* The news of her 
death was probably (till frefh to her fon. None 
of his letters relating to this time have been pre- 
ferved ; but the depth of his forrow may be efti- 
mated by the trueft meafure, his devoted love to 
his parents when living. He had been a dutiful 
fon ; and there is no feature in his character 

* Molyneux, in Holinfhed. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 209 

more clearly marked than tender family affec- 
tion. 

Whatever confolation he could have from the 
fondnefs of his wife, or from the fympathy of 
friends, was abundantly forthcoming. If condo- 
lence and kindnefs, together with the beft. medical 
fkill of the time, could have faved his life, he 
would have done well. As foon as the particulars 
of the battle of Zutphen were known in England, 
Sidney's health became a matter of public anxiety. 
The Queen difmiffed at once the prejudice which 
me had lately entertained againft him, and afTured 
him of her friendship with her own hand. She 
wrote a letter to cheer him, inquiring how he 
was, and defiring that daily reports mould be 
fent to her. Count Hohenlohe, lying feverely 
wounded in the face, fent to him a famous phyfi- 
cian, who was in attendance on himfelf, with gene- 
rofity refembling Sidney's own. The opinion of 
this doctor, Adrian van der Spiegel, was unfavour- 
able to Sidney's recovery. He foon became de- 
lirious, and for feveral days he lay between life 
and death. Then fome figns of amendment ap- 
peared. Leicefter, who left the camp to vifit him 
at the firft opportunity, wrote home on Septem- 
ber 27,* c< The furgeons have very good hope 

* MS. State Paper Office ; Holland Cfrrrefpondenc'e, vol. xxxv. 

P 



2 1 o The Life of 

of him ;" and again, ten days after the battle, 
" All the worft days be paft, as both furgeons 
and phyficians have informed me, and he amends 
as well as is poffible in this time, and himfelf 
finds it, for he fleeps and refts well, and hath a 
good ftomach to eat, without fear or any diftem- 
per at all. I thank God for it." But his de- 
fcription feems to have been coloured by his own 
fanguine temper, which was apt to imagine things 
as he defired them to be. Leicefter's veracity 
can never be depended on, where his wifhes or 
interefts are concerned. The cafe warranted no 
fuch hopes as thofe with which he buoyed up his 
own fpirits, and thofe of the Englifh nation. 
With the ftrongeft conftitution, Sidney's recovery 
would have been doubtful ; and unhappily he 
was far lefs robuft than might have been expected 
from his well-proportioned and athletic frame. 

He never doubted for himfelf that he was on 
his death-bed ; and he looked death fteadily in the 
face. The Calvinift divines, who came to in- 
ftruct him, found him better qualified to teach 
than to learn of them. Calling to his bedfide 
the minifters of both nations who vifited him, he 
profefTed before them his Chriftian faith, and 
invited them to pray in company with him, and 
fufFer him to lead them. " For," he faid, " the 



Sir Philip Sidney. 2 1 1 

fecret fins of his heart were beft known to himfelf, 
and he therefore more properly inftructed how 
to apply to himfelf the facrifice of our Saviour's 
pafllon and merits."* He proceeded to pray 
aloud, and they followed him, choked with fighs 
and tears. After a time he derided fuddenly, 
and began immediately to confult them as to the 
teftimony of the heathen concerning the immor- 
tality of the foul, and the confirmation which it 
received from the Old and New Teftaments. 
One of his former fayings was, cc He cannot be 
good, who knows not why he is good ;" and, con- 
fidently with this opinion, he had given much 
time to the ftudy of 'Chriftian evidences. He 
had commenced a tranflation of the great treatife, 
cc On the Truenefs of the Chriftian Religion," of 
his friend Mornay, cc the Pope of the Huguenots," 
as he was called. f In this book we may expect 
to find the principles of Sidney's religion, efpe- 
cially confidering the author's clofe alliance and 
friendship with Languet. Judging thus, Sidney's 
faith appears to have been of that enlightened kind 

* Brooke, p. 152. 

f This work was completed at his requeft by A. Golding, 
after his death. Another unfinimed work of Sidney's was 
a tranflation of Du Bartas* once celebrated poem on the 
Creation. Collier, Life of Spenfer. 



212 The Life of 

which holds Chriftianity as the fupremePhilofophy, 
no lefs than the fupreme Religion. The book is 
free from the morbid prominence of fingle doc- 
trines which is the common refult of controverfy. 
Mornay ftates clearly and impremVely the car- 
dinal points of the Gofpel : the unity of God ; 
the myftery of the Trinity ; the immortality of 
the foul ; the corruption of human nature ; that 
God himfelf is the cc fovereign welfare of man ;" 
the call of Ifrael ; the truth of Scripture ; and the 
mediation of Chrift. The handling of the treatife 
differs from that of fimilar modern works. It is 
written to confirm believers rather than to con- 
vince fceptics, and therefore lays more ftrefs upon 
doctrines than upon arguments. The arguments, 
too, are partly abftract reafonings from the af- 
fumed nature of things, and partly appeals to the 
authority of ancient philofophers, whofe writings, 
together with thofe of the early doctors of the 
Church, are cited with copious learning in fup- 
port of revelation. The opinions which prevailed 
at that time, concerning the beft of the heathens, 
were fomewhat contradictory. While their re- 
ligion was fet at nought as devilifh, their philo- 
fophical fpeculations were efteemed as hardly lefs 
than infallible. Sidney held the wifdom of Plato 
in efpecial veneration ; and during his illnefs he 



Sir Philip Sidney. 213 

delighted much in converting with his friends 
upon thofe intimations of eternity which pervade 
his dialogues. It feems worth while to dwell 
upon thefe records of the inward fprings of Sid- 
ney's life. Nor does there appear to be any 
fufficient caufe for refraining from the contempla- 
tion. No nobler object is prefented by this world 
than a dying Chriftian's mind ; in which, more 
than in hiftory or in poetry, we may trace the 
elements of that unattained ideal which we call a 
man's better felf : while time mellows whatever 
reminifcences are inharmonious, and wins belief 
for more lovelinefs and fublimity in human cha- 
racter than even the moft perfect lives exhibit 
confiftently. 

Gifford, one of Leicefler's Englifri chaplains, 
has left a minute account of Sidney's laft days, in 
which he writes : — cc Although he had profefTed 
the Gofpel, loved and favoured thofe that did 
embrace it, entered deeply into the concerns of 
the Church, taken good order and very good care 
for his family and foldiers to be inftructed, and to 
be brought to live accordingly, yet entering into 
deeper examination of his life now in the time of 
his affliction, he was moved to deep forrow." 
Sidney contracted his own life with thofe of good 
men in Scripture, who were fuftained under tribu- 



214 ¥fie Life of 

lation by the remembrance of having glorified 
God. " It is not fo in me," he faid, Cf my life has 
been vain, vain, vain." He was uneafy in con- 
fcience with regard to his Arcadia, and, after con- 
fultationwith the minifters, exprefled his defire that 
it fhould be burned.* He complained feveral 
times <c that his mind was dull in prayer, and that 
his thoughts did not afcend up fo quickly as he 
defired. For having before in manful fort en- 
treated the Lord with fervent prayer, he thought 
he fhould at all times feel that fervency, and was 
grieved when he found any thought interrupting 
the fame." At another time, after lying filent, he 
broke forth fuddenly into incoherent words, ex- 
prefling " his fenfe of the wretchednefs of man, 
c a poor worm/ of the mercies of God, and of his 
merciful providence ; and this he did with vehe- 
ment geftures and great joy, even ravifhed with 
the confideration of God's omnipotency, provi- 
dence, and goodnefs, whofe fatherly love in re- 
membering to chaften him he now felt, adding, 
how unfearchable the myfteries of God's Word 
are."f He thanked God for having allowed him 



* Brooke, p. 19. 

f Giffbrd's Narrative, printed by Zouch, Memoirs, pp. 
267-277. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 215 

fpace for repentance. At another time the pro- 
fpect of his poflible recovery flamed through his 
mind, and he declared, cc I have vowed my life to 
God." 

He took an early opportunity to make his will. 
By the recent death of his father he had become 
pofTefled of a conflderable fortune ; but the debts 
which he had incurred for the fake of the naked 
and hungry foldiers of Flufhing, together with his 
own profufe expenfe, had encumbered his eftate 
far more than he fufpected. His will was worded 
in the pious ancient mode : — cc I, Sir Philip Sid- 
ney, Kt., fore wounded in body, but whole in mind, 
all praifes be to God, do make this my laft Will 
and Teftament in manner and form following : 
Firft, I bequeath my foul to Almighty God who 
gave it me, and my body to the duft from whence 
it came." He proceeded to leave half his pro- 
perty to his cc moil dear and loving wife, Dame 
Frances Sidney," for her lifetime ; and he alfo 
made her his fole executrix. To his daughter he 
left 4,000 crowns, to be put to the beft inveftment 
in London or the Netherlands, but not cc in any 
cafe to be let out to any ufury at all." He gave 
directions that his debts mould be paid ; and be- 
queathed almoft innumerable legacies to friends of 
every ftation. The bulk of his property he left 



2i6 ■ The Life of 

to his brothers, Robert and Thomas,* referring the 
life intereft in half, which he had given to his wife. 

Having difcharged this duty, he indulged his 
fancy by turning his misfortune to a theme of 
poetry, and wrote a fong upon his wounded thigh, 
of which only the title is preferved, La CuiJJe 
Rornpue. This fong he caufed to be fet to mufic, 
and fung to him. Through pain and forrow his 
mind preferved the fame brilliant vivacity which 
had made him formerly the jewel of the Court; 
and his perfect ingenuoufnefs led him to manifeft 
each varying phafe of his foul without a fhadow 
of that fear of the world's criticifm which befets 
common minds. 

He fuffered much, and bore his fufTerings with 
ferene patience. From conftant lying his moulder- 
blades wore through his delicate fkin. Meanwhile 
he became weaker and weaker. His wife, almoft 
exhausted with anxious watching, looked vainly 
for any hopeful fymptom. One day his fine fenfe 
perceived that mortification had fet in, before his 
attendants were aware of the change. He blufhed 
at the offence which his condition might give to 
them, but calmly recognized the fure prefage of 
death, and fpoke of his approaching end with 

* In page io, Sidney's youngefl brother is mifcalled William. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 217 

compofure, faying " he feared not to die, but he 
was afraid left the pangs of death fhould be fo 
grievous that he might lofe his underftanding." 

On the evening of the 16th of October he was 
in great pain, and wrote to Wier, a phyhxian of 
Cleves : — 

cc My Wier, come, come : my life is in danger, 
and I want you. I will not be ungrateful, living 
or dead. I cannot write more, but befeech you 
to make hafte." * 

The fame night, as it drew towards morning, 
GifFord inquired of Sidney how he did. " I feel 
myfelf more weak," he anfwered. cc I truft, ,, faid 
GifFord, cc you are thoroughly prepared for death, 
if God mall call you." At this Sidney made a 
little paufe, and then rejoined, <c I have a doubt : 
pray refolve me in it. I have not flept this night. 
I have very earneftly and humbly befought the 
Lord to give me fome fleep. He hath denied it : 
this caufeth me to doubt that God doth not regard 
me, nor hear any of my prayers. This doth 
trouble me." The chaplain's explanation was, 
cc that for matters touching falvation or pardon of 



* The original, in Latin, written in a tremulous hand, is in 
the State Paper Office, accompanied by a letter from Wier's 
nephew, defcribing Sidney's condition. 



2i 8 The Life of 

fin through Chrift, He gave an abfolute promife : 
but for things concerning this life, God hath pro- 
mifed them but with caution. What He hath 
abfolutely promifed we may afTuredly look to re- 
ceive ; craving in faith that which He hath thus 
promifed." Sidney accepted the diftinclion : — " I 
am fully fatisfied and refolved with this anfwer : 
no doubt it is even fo; then I will fubmit myfelf 
to His will in thefe outward things." Prefently 
he fpoke again : cc I had this night a trouble in 
my mind ; for, fearching myfelf, methought I had 
not a full and fure hold of Chrift. After I had 
continued in this perplexity awhile, how ftrangely 
God did deliver me ! for it was a ftrange deliver- 
ance which I had. There came to my remem- 
brance a vanity in which I delighted, whereof I had 
not rid myfelf. I rid myfelf of it, and prefently 
my joy and comfort returned." A few hours 
after, putting out his hand to GifTord, and cc flap- 
ping him gently on the cheek," he faid, cc I would 
not change my joy for the empire of the world." 
Then he afked to be fpoken to out of the Scrip- 
tures, which was accordingly continued, for the 
fpace of three or four hours. Once or twice the 
readers paufed, fuppofing him to be afleep ; but 
he faid immediately, cc I pray you fpeak unto me 
ftill." 



Sir Philip Sidney. 219 

Later in the day he roufed himfelf, to add a 
codicil to his will. This was chiefly for the pur- 
pofe of giving prefents and memorials to thofe who 
had attended upon him during his illnefs ; his 
attached fecretary William Temple, the chaplains, 
phyficians, and others. Now, too, he parted with 
the laft poffeflions that bound him to human glory. 
He left his beft fword to the Earl of Effex, and 
his fecond to Lord Willoughby. 

His friends came in to take their leave of him ; 
laft of all his dear brother Robert. With the 
heavenly firmnefs of a dying Chriftian, Philip 
calmed his brother's paftionate grief, and gave to 
hira his final injunctions, — cc Love my memory; 
cherifh my friends ; their faith to me may afTure 
you they are honeft : but above all, govern your 
will and affections by the will and Word of your 
Creator, in me beholding the end of this world 
with all her vanities." In thefe words he bade 
him farewell ; but Robert clung to him weeping 
and fobbing, unable to control his forrow. At 
length Philip bade his friends to lead his brother 
away.* 

He fpoke no more, and foon afterwards ap- 
peared to be infenfible. Temple and Gifford 

* Brooke, p. 160. Gifford, in Zouch, p. 275. 



220 The Life of 

were with him to the laft. Gifford begged him 
to give a fign, if he was ftill confcious : — cc Sir, if 
you hear what I fay, let us by fome means know 
it ; and if you have ftill your inward joy and con- 
folation in God, hold up your hand." At thefe 
words the dying man lifted up his hand, which 
they thought he could fcarcely have moved, and 
ftretched it out high above his head. His friends 
cried aloud with joy. After this he raifed both 
his hands, and fet them together on his breaft, 
holding them upwards in an attitude of prayer. 
In that pofture they remained until they grew 
cold and ftiff. 

He pafTed from this world on the 17th of 
October, according to the old ftyle of the calendar, 
which was then ufed. In fix more weeks he would 
have completed his thirty-fecond year. 

The news of Sir Philip Sidney's death was re- 
ceived in England as a national calamity. A public 
mourning was made for him, a thing unprecedented 
in the cafe of a private individual. " For many 
months," his firft: editor ftates, " it was counted 
indecent for any gentleman of quality to appear, 
at Court or in the city, in light or gaudy apparel." 
Elizabeth was fo deeply moved, that, in writing to 
Leicester, me forgot a great part of her inftruc- 
tions, which fhe was obliged to defpatch afterwards 



Sir Philip Sidney. 221 

by a fecond meffenger. Walfingham was unable 
for a time to attend to public bufinefs. The ex- 
cellent Lord Buckhurft declared that no man had 
ever more tears at his death. Mornay wrote from 
France, cc I bewail his lofs not for England only, 
but for all Chriftendom. The Almighty has 
envied us the pofTeflion of him, judging him per- 
haps worthy of a better world. " Leicefter, whofe 
felfifhnefs and many vices were foftened by his 
impulfive warmth of feeling, lamented his lofs as 
if he had been his own fon. He was with Sir 
Philip on the day of his death, and he had no 
fpirit for the war afterwards. For Sidney had not 
only been, as he faid, the cc greateft comfort " to 
him, but his fervices had been invaluable as a 
counfellor and peacemaker. At firft Leicefter 
had undervalued his nephew's qualities, regarding 
him as an accomplifhed but fomewhat forward 
young man. Nor is it likely that he ever appre- 
ciated him worthily. But he found reafon to 
acknowledge that his own authority had been 
mainly upheld by Sidney, who did much to con- 
ciliate the Earl's many adverfaries. It was indeed 
believed that Sidney might have afpired, if he had 
chofen, to his uncle's place of Governor-General, 
with the good-will of the United Provinces. They 
now contended with England for his obfequies. 



222 The Life of 

Elizabeth was petitioned by the States of Zealand 
that they might have the honour of burying him at 
the expenfe of their government. They promifed 
to erect him as fair a monument as any prince in 
Chriftendom had. But the Queen refufed, and 
determined to order his funeral at her own coft. 
His corpfewas brought from Arnheimto Flufhing, 
and there put on board a pinnace of his own, hung 
with black drapery and efcutcheons. At the 
embarkation the whole garrifon marched down 
to the feafide trailing their enfigns, and followed 
by the citizens in long proceffion. The veffel, 
faluted on its departure with a triple difcharge of 
cannon and mufketry, proceeded with a calm 
voyage acrofs the German Ocean and up the 
Thames. At the Tower ftairs the corpfe was 
landed, and lay in ftate at the Minories for four 
months, while preparations were made on a grand 
fcale for the funeral. 

While Sidney's unburied corpfe was flill await- 
ing interment, an hiftorical event occurred which 
has given rife to a ftrange tale in his honour. 
The throne of Poland fell vacant; and among the 
numerous candidates from different nations who 
afpired to be elected, Sir Philip Sidney was after- 
wards faid to have been put in nomination. 
Tradition went fo far as to give reafons why he 



Sir Philip Sidney. 223 

was not elected, Sir Robert Naunton * imputing 
oppofition to Elizabeth, who could not endure to 
fee cc her fheep marked with a foreign mark : " 
while, on the other hand, the learned Fuller f 
defcribes Sidney himfelf as cc preferring rather to 
be a fubjecl: of Queen Elizabeth than a fovereign 
beyond the feas." In fact, however, the death of 
Sidney preceded by more than a month that of 
King Stephen, which took place at Grodno, in 
December, 1586, after a profperous reign of 
twelve years. J The ftory, though often repeated 
fince without queflion, is only valuable as betray- 
ing the high conceptions which Sidney's country- 
men formed of him, and poffibly fome vague dif- 
courfe of what he might have been if he had lived. 
The late king was not of royal birth, and had 
proved the beft of all the Polifh fovereigns. In 
the previous interregnum Sidney had vifited Poland 
as a youth of twenty, and had fince taken fpecial 
intereft in the politics of the kingdpm. Thefe 
circumftances, together with Sidney's rare accom- 
plifhments, probably fuggefted this tale, which 
would be hard to believe, even if it were confident 
with dates. 



Naunton's Regalia. f Fuller's Worthies. 

% L'Art de verifier les Dates. 



224 The Life of 

His funeral took place in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
on the 1 6th of February, 1587, with much ftate * 
The proceflion parTed in a long line through the 
city from the Minories. It was led by thirty-two 
poor men, anfwering to the years of his age. 
Then came a group of friends, among whom 
Sir Francis Drake is named. No part of the 
melancholy ceremonial which is cuftomary in 
attending a foldier to his grave was wanting on 
this occafion. One page led the dead knight's 
horfe, another bore his broken lance. Five heralds 
carried feverally his gilt fpurs of knighthood, his 
gauntlets, his helmet and creft, his fhield, and his 
coat-of-arms. The pall was borne by four young 
men, the deareft among his friends ; Fulke Gre- 
ville, Edward Dyer, Edward Wotton, and Thomas 
Dudley. Robert Sidney followed as chief mourner. 
With him were Thomas Sidney, the Earls of 
Huntingdon, Pembroke, Leicefter, and EfTex, and 
Lords Willoughby and North. The Seven United 
Provinces fent each their reprefentative. The Lord 
Mayor and Aldermen of London followed, with 
the Liverymen of the Grocers' Company, to which 
Sidney had belonged. A large body of mufketeers, 



* A curious narrative of Sidney's death and funeral is printed 
at the end of this volume. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 225 

pikemen, and halberdiers, brought up the rear of 
the proceffion.* 

No monument is known to have been erected 
over his grave ; but a wooden tablet, with a 
bombaftic infcription, imitated from a French 
epigram on another perfon, was attached to one 
of the pillars of the cathedral, and doubtlefs 
perifhed in the Great Fire. The precife fpot 
which contains Sidney's duft is uncertain. It was, 
however, under the Lady Chapel, at the back of 
the high altar of old St. Paul's. 

To the great diftrefs of Walfingham, who was ' 
his executor, it was found impoflible to carry out 
the intentions of his will. Sidney's perfonal pro- 
perty was not fufficient to difcharge a third part 
of his debts, and the lawyers who were confulted 
on the fubject gave their opinion that the will 
contained no provision for the fale of landed 
eftates for this purpofe. " It doth greatly afflict 
me," wrote Walfingham, cc that a gentleman who 
hath lived fo unfpotted in reputation, and had fo 
great care to fee all men fatisfied, mould be fo 
expofed to the outcry of his creditors." f He paid 



* An illuftrated account of Sidney's funeral is exhibited in 
the King's Library of the Britifh Mufeum. 
f Bruce's Leiceiter Correfpondence. 



226 "The Life of 

out of his own purfe 6,000/., which he could ill 
afford, for the difcharge of his fon-in -law's liabili- 
ties. His daughter was at firft overwhelmed with 
care and forrow for her lofs. For fome weeks fhe 
remained at Utrecht, too ill to return to England. 
In December fhe bore a dead child, and for a long 
time her life was in ferious danger. She recovered, 
however, and lived to fee another hufband taken 
from her by a violent death, an object of popular 
fympathy, equally ftrong, though far lefs worthy. 
Her fecond hufband was Robert Devereux, Earl 
of EfTex. After his execution fhe joined the 
Roman Catholic religion. Some years later fhe 
was married a third time, to the Earl of Clan- 
ricarde. 

Elizabeth Sidney, Sir Philip's only daughter, 
who received from the Queen her own name, was 
married to the Earl of Rutland, and died at the 
age of thirty, without ifTue. 

It is delightful to turn from thefe fequels of 
Sidney's life, which are not without fadnefs, as 
feeming to efface his bright remembrance from 
the world, to review the elegies which were written 
in his memory. The admiration and forrow of 
the Englifh people found utterance in poetry more 
copious and tender, perhaps, than has ever been 
poured forth in lamentation for any man's death 



Sir Philip Sidney. 227 

in any nation. Oxford and Cambridge publifhed 
three volumes of Latin elegiac verfe, entitled 
" Lachrymae," of which two volumes were con- 
tributed by the former univerfity. King James 
of Scotland, by whom, in one of his laft letters, 
Sidney had defired to be held in affectionate 
remembrance,* mowed his efteem for his deceafed 
friend by Sonnets, of indifferent merit, both in 
Englifh and Latin. To recite even the names of 
the authors, who have celebrated Sidney's praifes 
in profe and verfe, would be tedious ; for the lift, 
it is faid, might without difficulty be extended 
beyond 200. It includes the names of the 
Countefs of Pembroke, of Spenfer, Sir Walter 
Raleigh, Ben Jonfon, Waller, among the poets of 
his own and of the next generation, befide others 
of lefs note. Young, Cowper, Shelley, and 
Southey, in modern times, have fwelled the cata- 
logue of poets ; while of the hiftorians of the 
politics or literature of Elizabeth's reign, almoft 
every one has paufed to commemorate Sidney's 
excellence. Some have touched upon his name 
with pafting epithets of praife or affection, fuch 
as " the gentle," or " the all-accomplifhed." 
Others have mown the deeper appreciation of 

* Murdin's Burghley Papers. 



228 The Life of 

his worth, which is moft feelingly exprefTed in the 
words of Camden: — " Of whom I cannot well fay 
what and how much Britain augured for herfelf ; 
but fnatched away by untimely death, he has been 
received into the facred afTembly of heaven." 

Among the elegies which were written on Sid- 
ney's death thofe of Spenfer claim to be fingled 
out for efpecial notice. Very few poetical records 
of bereaved friendfhip furpafs the grace of c< A£ 
trophel." Under Sidney's own adopted name 
and favourite difguife of a mepherd, Spenfer de- 
fcribes his friend's perfon and character, and relates 
allegorically the circumflances of his death : — 

" A flender fwain, excelling far each other 

In comely fhape, like her that did him breed ; 
He grew up fall in goodnefs and in grace, 
And doubly fair wox both in mind and face. 

" Which daily more and more he did augment, 

With gentle ufage and demeanour mild, 

That all men's hearts with fecret ravifhment 

He Hole away, and weetingly beguiled. 

Nor fpite itfelf, that all good things doth fpill, 
Found aught in him that fhe could fay was ill. 

" His fports were fair, his joyaunce innocent, 

Sweet without four, and honey without gall ; 
And he himfelf feemed made for merriment, 
Merrily mafking both in bower and hall. 
There was no pleafure nor delightful play 
When Aftrophel fo ever was away. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 229 

" In wreftling nimble, and in running fwift, 

In mooting fteady, and in fwimming ftrong ; 
Well made to ftrike, to throw, to leap, to lift, 
And all the fports that fhepherds are among. 
In every one he vanquifhed every one ; 
He vanquished all, and vanquifhed was of none." 

With poetical licence, his wound is reprefented 
as caufed by the tufk of a boar in hunting, and 
his wife's perilous grief at his death is heightened 
to a fatal iflue : — 

" His pallid face, impidlured with death, 

She bathed oft with tears, and dried oft; 
And with fweet kiffes fucked the wafting breath 
Out of his lips, like lilies pale and foft: 

And oft fhe called to him, who anfwered nought, 
But only by his looks did tell his thought." 

In defcribing her imaginary death the poet 
appropriates to her the name of Stella : — 

" Forthwith her ghoft out of her corpfe did flit, 
And followed her mate like turtle chafte ; 

To prove that death their hearts cannot divide, 
Which living were in love fo firmly tied. 

" The gods, which all things fee, this fame beheld, 
And, pitying this pair of lovers true, 
Transformed them, there lying on the field, 
Into a flower that is both red and blue : 

It firil grows red, and then to blue doth fade, 
Like Aftrophel, which thereunto was made. 



230 The Life of 

tf And in the mid ft thereof a ftar appears, 
As fairly formed as any ftar in ikies ; 
Refembling Stella in her frefheft years, 

Forth darting beams of beauty from her eyes ; 
And all the day it ftandeth full of dew, 
Which is the tears that from her eyes do flow." 

But it was not only in this fantaftic manner 
that Spenfer expreffed his deep and fincere regret. 
He often recurs to the theme of Sidney's vir- 
tues, in other poems. Thus, in his ftately piece 
entitled cc The Ruins of Time," while moralizing 
on the inftability of human greatnefs, as illuftrated 
by the deaths of the Earls of Leicefter and War- 
wick, he takes occafion to refer to Sidney in 
verfes of rare eloquence and fweetnefs. Again, 
in his Sonnet to the Countefs of Pembroke, he 
writes thus : — 

" Remembrance of that moil heroic fpirit, 

The heaven's pride, the glory of our days, 
Which now triumpheth, through immortal merit 

Of his brave virtues, crowned with lafting bays 
Of heavenly blifs and everlafting praife; 

Who firft my mufe did lift out of the floor, 
To fing his fweet delights in lowly lays ; 

Bids me, moft noble lady, to adore 
His goodly image, living evermore 

In the divine refemblance of your face." 

The collection of Spenfer's Works includes 



Sir Philip Sidney, 231 

feveral other poems, by various authors, appended 
to the elegy of " Aftrophel." One of thefe 
profefTes to be by the Countefs, " moft refem- 
bling, both in fhape and fpright, her brother 
dear," and is called " The Doleful Lay of Clo- 
rinda." It bears, however, apparent traces of 
Spenfer's thought and flyle; as, for inftance, in 
the beautiful verfes which follow the queftion 
concerning Sidney's foul, " Ay me ! can fo divine 
a thing be dead ?" 

" Ah, no ! it is not dead, nor can it die, 
But lives for aye in blifsful Paradife: 
Where, like a new-born babe, it foft doth lie, 
In bed of lilies wrapped in tender wife ; 
And compaffed all about with rofes fweet, 
And dainty violets from head to feet. 

" There thoufand birds, all of celeflial brood, 
To him do fweetly carol day and night, 
And with ftrange notes, of him well underftood, 
Lull him afleep in angelic delight ; 

Whilft in fweet dreams to him prefented be 
Immortal beauties, which no eye may fee." 

Next in order come two pieces of which the 
reputed author is Lewis Bryfkett, a valued friend 
of Sidney, and his companion during his Italian 
tour. In the former of thefe, entitled " The 
Mourning Mufe of Theftylis," Sidney's laft 



232 The Life of 

moments are defcribed with fome degree of rug- 
ged pathos. In the latter, called cc A Paftoral 
Eclogue," his death is lamented under the name 
of Phillifides, by which Sidney refers to himfelf 
in his Arcadia. Another elegy follows, by an 
unknown author, and the feries is concluded by 
two elaborate epitaphs, the former of which is by 
far the befl, and is afcertained to be by Sir Walter 
Raleigh,* 

An obvious feature of all thefe elegies is a 
{train of almoft idolatrous flattery, which has pre- 
vioufly been noticed as a characteriftic of the age. 
Yet, however faulty in point of truth or tafte 
they may appear, the genuine refpect and love 
which dictated them is unqueftionable. The 
veneration with which Sidney was regarded was 
doubtlefs increafed by the fplendid and tragical 
circumftances of his death. Never did a mortal 
ftroke appear more like the cruel work of the 
" blind fury with the abhorred {hears," who " flits 
the thinfpun life" of thofe who are about to rind 
the fair guerdon of fame. He lived long enough 
to difplay a military genius to which, in England 
at leaft, there was in that day no rival. For 



* Butler's " Sidneiana." From this epitaph the mottoes to 
Chapters I. and VII. are taken. 



Sir Philip Sidney, 233 

many years no fuccefs had been obtained, by an 
Englifh commander, of equal brilliancy and im- 
portance with the furprife of Axel ; and it feemed 
that only opportunity was wanting to him to 
achieve ftill greater enterprifes. His youth added 
to the keennefs of regret with which his lofs was 
felt. Moft of thofe who leave a name to pofterity 
have fcarcely begun their public life, at the age 
when Sidney's career was brought to an end. 
His friends might well call his death untimely, in 
refpecl: of his promife for the national fervice ; yet 
it was not altogether fo if we look to the growth 
and perfection of his character. We may aptly 
quote of him the kindly words which have re- 
cently been called forth by the deceafe of one of 
his race, heir alike of his name and virtues, the 
Chriftian gentleman, and the foldier's friend : — 

" O meafure not his life by length of days, 

His thread is fully fpun, whom all unite to praife." 

Sidney himfelf, being prefTed overmuch by his 
fpiritual advifers to fay, whether he preferred to 
live or die, anfwered, cc I do not grieve to die, 
and yet, to fpeak plainly, I rather wim to live."* 
He was in the prime of phyfical vigour, when 

* G. Whetftone, in Sir A. Bofwell's Collection of rare 
Poems. 



234 Me Life of 

the nature of man has full enjoyment of life, and 
abandons it moft unwillingly. He had, too, 
before his eyes, and under his hand, the tafk 
which had long loomed before him as the mif- 
fion to which he was called. The grandeur of 
the conteft with Spain had been underftood by 
him with more than ordinary clearnefs. He faw 
in it nothing lefs than a national ftruggle for 
Liberty, and a religious ftruggle for Truth. With 
thefe deeper convictions a chivalrous love of glory 
intermingled. The dim profpect of fuch exploits 
as followed fhortly after his death had filled his 
mind with enthufiafm from childhood ; and he 
had only begun to tafte the felicity of him, — 

" who brought 
Among the tafks of real life, hath wrought 
Upon the plan that pleafed his boyifh thought." 

Had his life been fpared but a little while, he 
would have had an opportunity of joining with 
his friends in fome of the moft fplendid achieve- 
ments recorded in Englifh hiftory. He might 
have chafed the Armada with Drake, and fhared 
the fame of the capture of Cadiz with Raleigh 
and EfTex. 

Yet his early death removed him beyond the 
reach of worldly taint and corruption, and he 



Sir Philip Sidney. 235 

efcaped the ruin which befel feveral of the greateft 
of his contemporaries. Moreover, the very ac- 
cident, which cut fhort his dreams of fame, gave 
to him an occafion of winning, far otherwife than 
he had conceived, a peerlefs rank in Chriftian 
knighthood. A juft but happy deftiny has afTo- 
ciated for ever the name of Sidney with the anec- 
dote of the wounded foldier. Neither hiftory 
nor fiction contains any more beautiful example of 
the charity which the Gofpel teaches. Yet the 
act was flmply characteriftic. Other men have 
lived who might have done the fame, with more 
deliberate and continuous felf-denial ; but in Sid- 
ney's life this incident has a peculiar propriety, 
which leads one, in contemplating it, not fo much 
to wonder, as to fay, cc How like him !" Among 
Chriftian worthies — and the foregoing narrative 
is a ground for applying this title to him — 
Sidney is diftinguifhed by large and refined fym- 
pathy. At the Auftrian Court, abridging his 
mefTage of condolence out of regard for the Em-, 
prefs's forrow ; at home, refraining to vifit Bur- 
leigh for fear that his prefence fhould recall fad 
memories ; conciliating the fufceptible tempers of 
poets and men of letters, and retaining their 
univerfal love ; in the Netherlands, pleading, at 
the peril of royal difpleafure, on behalf of his 



236 The Life of 

poor foldiers ; everywhere he fhows the fame 
exquifite fenfibility for others. Many delicate 
touches in his writings, which would be marred 
by quotation, no lefs than the importunity which 
fills his correfpondence,illuftrate this virtue, which, 
however fpontaneous it might Teem in him, flowed 
from its true fource of love to God in Chrift. 
cc He made the religion he profefTed the firm 
bafis of his life." 

The completenefs of Sidney's character is alfo 
remarkable. He bears to be regarded, like a 
well-executed ftatue, from all fides. Many good 
men are in comparifon like pictures, admirable 
when feen from one point of view, but having no 
other afpect which claims attention. Their bio- 
graphies are in confequence merely felections from 
their lives, of thofe things which friendship would 
wifh to hold in remembrance, with the omifiion 
of much that is effential : fo that fometimes the 
reader hardly knows them again, as they appear 
in the hiftory of their contemporaries. Such 
partial memoirs, where vital points of character 
are fupprefied, mifs the general end of biography, 
which is not to magnify individuals, but to com- 
pare humanity, as it is, with the image of God 
which is its perfection. But the effect of a 
candid reprefentation is to make men feem worfe 



Sir Philip Sidney. 237 

than they really are, a difadvantage to which 
Sidney is more expofed than moft, both from his 
franknefs and from his verfatility. He lived with 
his heart open to the world ; and his fervid fpirit 
led him into almoft every form of trial that can 
befall a man. Soldier, ftatefman, diplomatift, 
courtier, lover, poet, fcholar, philofopher, he is 
liable to criticifm from every quarter where temp- 
tation is ftrongeft and nature is moft frail. To 
pafs through fuch an ordeal unfcathed would 
argue fuperhuman virtue. It is much, under 
fuch circumftances, to live unpolluted by the 
darker fpots of fin, and to increafe with increafing 
years in devotion and purity of foul. Some who, 
with no more excufe, have fallen into guilt where 
Sidney receded, have notwithftanding been en- 
rolled among the faints. And if his chivalrous 
renown mould be turned to his difpraife, as feem- 
ing inconfiftent with the title of fanclity, the true 
nature of the fpirit of chivalry muft be remem- 
bered. It was a fuperftition, blended of Chrif- 
tian and alien elements, which played in public 
life a flmilar part to that which was filled by 
monafticifm in retirement. Through ages of 
darknefs and ferocity chivalry preferved the vir- 
tues of felf-denial, mercy, and gentlenefs. Like 
monafticifm, it became obfolete in the advance 



238 The Life of 

of civilization, and its abufes increafed as its good 
influence declined : but it was a living fpirit in 
the days of Sidney, and in no one does chivalry 
look more fair. Upon the whole, he may be 
faid to come near to the ideal of an Englifhman. 
His firft principle was the love of truth, and 
what he feemed, he was to the very heart. He 
was a genuine patriot, a loyal lover of freedom, 
a brave and a wife gentleman ; and while he was 
a type of what is nobleft in his age and nation, 
his qualities were fuch as have marked the greateft 
and beft men in all times. 




Sir Philip Sidney. 



2 39 





PAMELA'S PRAYER. 

Arcadia, Book in. See p. 96. 

ALL-SEEING Light, and eternal Life of all 
things, to whom nothing is either fo great that 
it may refill, or fo fmall that it is contemned : 
look upon my mifery with thine eye of mercy, 
and let thine infinite power vouchfafe to limit out fome pro- 
portion of deliverance unto me, as to thee fhall feem moll con- 
venient. Let not injury, O Lord, triumph over me, and let 
my faults by thy hand be corrected, and make not mine enemy 
the minifler of thy juilice. But yet, O God, if, in thy wifdom, 
this be the apteft chaflifement for my inexcufable folly; if this 
low bondage be fitteft for my over-high defires; if the pride 
of my not enough humble heart be thus to be broken, O Lord, 
I yield unto thy will, and joyfully embrace what forrow thou 
wilt have me to fuifer. Only thus much let me crave of thee, 
— let my craving, O Lord, be accepted of thee, iince even that 
proceeds from thee, — let me crave (even by the noblefl title 
which in my great affliction I may give myfelf, that I am thy 
creature ; and by thy goodnefs, which is thyfelf) that thou 
wilt fuffer fome beam of thy Majefly to fhine into my mind, 
that it may Hill depend confidently on thee. Let calamity be 
the exercife, but not the overthrow of my virtue : let their 



240 



The Life of 



power prevail, but prevail not to deftru&ion. Let my great- 
nefs be their prey; let my pain be the fweetnefs of their 
revenge ; let them (if fo feem good unto thee) vex me with 
more and more punifhment. But, O Lord, let never their 
wickednefs have fuch a hand, but that I may carry a pure mind 
in a pure body ! " 




Sir Philip Sidney. 241 




(From a Collettion of rare Poems privately printed by 
Sir Alexander Bo/well.) 




A Commemoration of the General Moan, and the 

Honourable and Solemn Funeral made for the Worthy 

Sir Philip Sidney, Kt., by B. W. Esq^ 

HEN winter's bitter blaft the trees began to bare, 
Sweet Sidney flain, down fell our hope and pillar 

of welfare. 
He was the rifing fun, that made all England 
glad; 
He was the light and life of thofe that any virtues had ; 
He was the Mufes' joy, he was Bellona's fhield, 
Within the town he was a lamb, a lion in the field. 
His life bewrayed a love that matched Curtius' zeal, 
His death, no lefs contempt of death, to ferve the common weal. 
No gift nor grace there was, but in his virtues mined, 
His worth, more worth than Flanders' wealth, now by his lofs 

we find. 
For when his facred foul did forth his body fly, 
Ten thoufand fhrieks purfued the fame into the ftarry fky : 
The ftouteft: foldiers, then, fhowed feminine difplay, 
And with their tears did wafh his wound that brought him to 
decay. 

R 



242 The Life of 



Some killed his breathlefs mouth, where wifdom flowed at will ; 
Some raifed his head that lately was the treafure-houfe of fkill. 
Where truth and courage lived, his noble heart, fome felt; 
Some laid their hands upon his breaft, where all the virtues 

dwelt. 
Some eyed his clofen eyes, that watched the poor man's need, 
And when they did unwrap his thigh, his wound did make 

them bleed. 
" O honour dearly bought ! " they cried, and moaned this 

chance, 
So ftroke his hand, and faid, " Farewell, thou glory of the 

lance!" 
Outcries foon fpread his death, the moan ran far and near, 
What was he then, that mourned not the doleful news to hear ? 
The King of Scots bewrayed his grief in learned verfe, 
And many more their paffions penned, with praife to deck his 

hearfe. 
The Flufhingers made fuit his breathlefs corpfe to have, 
And offered a fumptuous tomb the fame for to engrave ; 
But oh ! his loving friends at their requeft did grieve, 
It was too much he loft his life, his corfe they mould not have. 
And fo from Flufhing port, in fhip attired with black, 
They did embark this perfect knight, that only breath did lack ; 
The wind and feas did mourn to fee this heavy fight, 
And into Thames did carry this much lamented knight ; 
Unto the Minories his body was conveyed, 
And then under a martial hearfe three months or more was 

laid; 
But when the day was come he to his grave muft go, 
An hoft of heavy men repaired to fee the folemn mow : 
The poor whom he, good knight, did often clothe and feed, 
In frefh remembrance of their woe, went firft in mourning 
weed. 



Sir Philip Sidney. 243 

His friends and fervants fad was thought a heavy fight, 
Who fixed their eyes upon the ground which now mull houfe 

their knight. 
To hear the drum and fife fend forth a doleful found, 
To fee his colours, late advanced, lie trailing on the ground, 
Each ornament of war thus out of order borne, 
Did pierce ten thoufand hearts with grief, which were not 

named to mourn. 
Some marked the great difmay that charged his martial band, 
And how fome horfemen walked on foot, with battle-axe in 

hand. 
Some told the mourning cloaks his gentlemen did wear, 
What knights and captains were in gowns, and what the 

heralds bare ; 
Some marked his ftately horfes how they hung down their head, 
As if they mourned for their knight that followed after dead. 
But when his noble corfe in folemn w T ife palled by, 
" Farewell the worthieft knight that lived ! " the multitude did 

cry; 
" Farewell, that honoured art by laurel and the lance ! 
" Farewell the friend beloved of all, that hadft no foe but 

chance ! " 
His folemn funeral, befeeming his eftate, 
Was by the heralds marfhalled, the more to mourn his fate. 
Three Earls and other Lords, the Holland States in black, 
With all their train, then followed ; and that no love might 

lack, 
The Mayor and Aldermen in purple robes then mourned, 
And laft a band of citizens, with weapons awkward turned, 
In folemn wife did bring this knight unto the ground ; 
Who being then bellowed at reft, their laft adieu to found, 
Two vollies of brave Ihot they thundered to the Ikies ; 
And thus his funeral did end with many weeping eyes ; 



244 ^^ e Life of Sir Philip Sidney. 

Upon whofe monument in letters writ with gold 
This epitaph deferves to be, for all men to behold. 

Of the moft worthy and hardy knight, Sir Philip Sidney, 
The Epitaph. 

Here underneath lies Philip Sidney, Knight, 
True to his Prince, learned, ftaid, and wife, 
WKo loft his life in honourable fight, 
Who vanquilhed death, in that he did defpife 
To live in pomp by others brought to pafs, 
Which oft he termed a diamond fet in brafs. 



THE END. 



CHISWICK PRESS : PRINTED BY WHITT1NGHAM AND WJLK1NS, 

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS M 

020 946 968 6 



